About us

We are an ACGME accredited program that accepts four categorical residents per year. The program is five years in length with four and a half years spent at Cedars-Sinai (including three months at affiliate Kerlan-Jobe Institute for sports medicine), three months at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and three months at Shriners Hospital for Children Los Angeles.

Click here to see access the Cedars-Sinai Graduate Medical Education website

Our clinical sites

The majority of the clinical rotations take place at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, allowing the residents to easily attend all conferences. The hospital provides superb on-call facilities, excellent staff and ancillary services including a magnet nursing program, a dedicated orthopaedic surgical floor, around the clock intravenous, phlebotomy, and blood gas teams, EKG services, radiology technicians, and patient transport services.

Resident benefits

• Competitive salary

• Housing stipend of $12,000 per year

• Educational Stipend of $2000 per year

• Quarterly food allowances

• Free parking

• 4 weeks of vacation per year

• Sponsorship to attend and present original research at local, national and international conferences

• Personal lead aprons and lead goggles

• Reimbursement for educational expenses such as the DEA license, medical licensing, and Step 3

• BLS, ACLS, and ATLS certification 

*See additional benefit details on our GME website

Curriculum

Residents develop their surgical skills throughout residency training with early OR experience as PGY1s and increasing autonomy over time. They experience high surgical volume in all orthopaedic subspecialities and a wide spectrum of cases. The patient population at Cedars-Sinai is diverse, ranging from indigent, uninsured individuals to rare, complex orthopaedic referrals. Our faculty have decades of collective experience in residency education and are passionate about teaching. At Cedars-Sinai, residents benefit from mentorship, didactic instruction, and clinical experiences with these nationally renowned experts. All clinical rotations are accompanied by corresponding outpatient experiences, to enable the resident to be involved in the preoperative and postoperative phases of patient care. PGY5 residents are responsible for running the Orthopaedic Academic Clinic. All outpatient experiences are supervised by faculty.

PGY-2

Two month rotation blocks consisting of:

• Orthopaedic Trauma (three blocks)

• Spine surgery

• Adult Reconstruction

• Foot and Ankle

Second year residents will also take in-house overnight call approximately every fourth night. Post-call days are strictly protected.

PGY-3

Three month rotation blocks consisting of:

• Sports Medicine (Kerlan-Jobe Institute/Santa Monica Orthopedic Group)

• Adult Reconstruction

• Orthopaedic Trauma

• Pediatrics (Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles)

Third year residents cover operative weekend call (home call). Approximately 10-11 weekends per year.

PGY-4

PGY-5

Didactics

The Didactic Education Program is designed to cover all aspects of orthopaedic surgery. Wednesday and Friday mornings are protected didactic time for residents, consisting of one hour attending led topical lectures and one hour of review lectures presented by senior residents. All senior residents (PGY4 and PGY5) play a significant role in teaching their peers and juniors. An additional hour is dedicated to a rotating schedule of cadaveric prosection, skills lab sessions in the Cedars-Sinai simulation center, monthly resident meetings, and additional critical topics such as practice management, medicolegal issues, and financial planning.

Skills lab sessions at Cedars-Sinai feature hands-on activities with representatives and equipment from a variety of vendors and equipment including robotic navigation, arthroplasty implants and sawbones. These opportunities allow residents to practice with the instrumentation and hardware they will experience in the OR.

Additional Educational Activities

The Department of Surgery has recently opened a Surgical Simulator Laboratory with advanced computerized simulators for arthroscopic surgery. Residents spend time in the facility under the guidance of faculty members. This laboratory is part of our sports medicine curriculum, designed to provide all residents with an appropriate experience in a wide range of arthroscopic procedures.

Biannual anatomy and skills labs are held at the DePuy Synthes laboratory site in Irvine, California. Residents work in pairs to perform entire upper and lower extremity dissections on fresh cadavers with faculty direction. These sessions are rare opportunities to practice surgical exposures, dissection technique and select procedures. Additional smaller anatomic dissection labs are held locally as well.

All PGY-2 residents are sponsored by the residency program to attend the AO Basic trauma course. All Cedars-Sinai trauma attendings are instructors at AO and Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) courses. In addition to learning the fundamentals of fracture fixation and acute management, residents enjoy a wonderful social opportunity with their peers and attendings outside of the hospital.

In accordance with ACGME requirements, the program provides specific training on patient safety and ethical topics throughout the PGY1 year. These small group sessions are led by Dr. Paiement and often involving home-cooked meals at his house!

All PGY-3 residents are sponsored by the residency program in partnership with industry to attend the Annual AAOS/AAHKS Fundamentals of Hip and Knee Arthroplasty meeting http://meeting.aahks.org/aahks-courses/resident-arthroplasty-course/. 

All PGY-4 residents are sponsored by the program to attend the annual AAOS meeting for fellowship interviews, career networking and professional development.

Residents with specific interests have also attended the AO Advanced trauma course, Depuy Synthes Arthroplasty course, Medtronic Spine course, etc. supported by the department or industry grants. Funding and time away to attend additional courses is considered on an individual basis. 

Departmental Education Activities

*Wednesday Morning Conference (7:00 a.m.):

• Orthopaedic Grand Rounds three times per month

• Monthly Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conference

• Quarterly Musculoskeletal Radiology/Orthopaedic Surgery combined conference

*Grand Rounds: These academic conferences are presented by departmental faculty or by nationally and internationally-renowned visiting professors. Previous invited speakers have included Dr. Douglas Dennis from University of Colorado (Joints), Dr. David Helfet from HSS Chief Emeritus (Trauma/Adult Reconstruction), and Dr. Amy Ladd of Stanford (Hand Surgery). This lecture series is designed to present cutting-edge research and contemporary clinical practices. Residents are exempt from clinical duties during the conference and have the opportunity for additional small group case presentations with the guest speakers. 

*Core Curriculum: Wednesday’s from 8:00-9:00am and Friday’s from 7:00–9:00 a.m. This is a weekly protected block for resident education involving one hour didactic lectures by attending faculty. The remaining time is reserved for additional educational endeavors such as question review for the Orthopaedic In-Training Exam (OITE), cadaveric dissections, saw-bones workshops, surgical skills labs, etc.

Service Specific Educational Activities

Trauma

• Trauma Pass-On Rounds with all trauma attending faulty, daily, 6:30–7:00 a.m.

• Combined Plastic Surgery and Orthopaedic Trauma Case Review and Fracture Conference, Tuesdays, 7:00–8:30 a.m. (A case-based conference and focused review of all surgical cases from the prior week)

• Orthopaedic Trauma Didactic Teaching & Walk Rounds, Thursday, 7:00–8:00 a.m.

Arthroplasty

• Didactics, Thursday, 9:00–10:00 a.m.

• Arthroplasty Conference, Tuesday, 6:30 a.m. (A case-based conference as well as a forum for practice with the oral examination format)

• Arthroplasty research meeting, 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, 6:30 am

Spine

• Spine Conference, Wednesday, 7:00–8:00 a.m. (Features grand rounds presentations and case-based discussions)

Foot & Ankle

• Foot & Ankle Conference, Tuesday, 7:00-8:00 am

Hand

• Hand Surgery Teaching Conference, Monday, 5:00–6:00 p.m.

• Hand Surgery AAOS Core Curriculum, Thursday, 5:00 p.m.

Sports

• Sports Lectures, Thursday pm.

In addition, there are a number of special lectures throughout the year organized by the Department of Surgery and other medical divisions.

All residents are required to take the Orthopaedic Surgery In-Training Examination (OITE) every year and undergo year-around preparation through AAOS ResStudy and Orthobullets.