Message from Program Director
Dear Prospective Applicant,
Thank you for your interest in the Westchester Medical Center Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program, located just 20 minutes north of New York City. The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery currently has 15 residents and offers three five-year training positions. The residency program is fully accredited by the Orthopedic Residency Review Committee of the ACGME and offers a well-rounded clinical and academic experience in each of the orthopaedic subspecialties. Residents in this program work with dedicated full-time and voluntary faculty members. The comprehensive program includes rotations at Westchester Medical Center (a Level I trauma center), Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital (a dedicated pediatric hospital on the main campus), Stamford Hospital (a Level II community hospital), and Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital (a busy joint arthroplasty center).
I invite you to look through our website to learn more about the training program, and I encourage you to ask questions and discuss the program with our current residents. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
David Wellman, MD
Program Director
Program Overview and Curriculum
Didactic Schedule
The Westchester Medical Center Residency Program maintains a curriculum for teaching residents the basics of orthopaedics in all of the subspecialty areas. The content is directed by the Residency Program Director, service chiefs, and chief residents. There are four hours of protected conference activity each Monday and one hour of protected time on Wednesday. Attending staff oversee and coordinate conferences.
Teaching Conferences Include
Monday/Wednesday Conferences: Monday/Wednesday mornings are protected times for educational activities. Conferences include Grand Round Speakers, anatomy lab dissections, and morbidity and mortality conference. The remainder of the time on Monday and Wednesday is spent working through a progressive didactic schedule organized by the individual service line directors. The residents also participate in fracture conference, basic science lectures, pathology conference, and OITE review in addition to the subspecialty lectures. Further, there are a series of “invited professionals” lecture on medico-legal issues, ethics and professionalism, medical devices, and product and implant demonstration.
Courses and Conferences
Courses: Each year residents attend national courses and conferences with departmental support.
- PGY-I- Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)
- PGY-II - AO Basic Fracture Course
- PGY-III - Arthroscopy Course (Academy Learning Center, Rosemont, IL)
- PGY-IV- Pathology Review Course (Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, NY)
- PGY-V- Miller Review Course (Westminster, CO)
Rotation Sites
Westchester Medical Center (Valhalla, NY)
- 652 bed Level 1 Trauma Center (Pediatric and Adult)
- Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital contiguous with WMC
- 136 beds, 8 operating rooms
- Brand new Ambulatory Care Pavilion (2019)
- Eight state-of-the-art operating rooms for ambulatory surgery
- Advanced imaging center
- Regional referral center
- ~24,000 admissions yearly
- ~3,000 Orthopaedic procedures annually
- Highest case mix index in the nation
- Trauma: PGY-1, PGY-2, PGY- 3, PGY-4, PGY-5
- Spine: PGY-2, PGY-3, PGY-4, PGY-5
- Adult Recon/Tumor: PGY-2, PGY-3
- Hand:PGY-1, PGY-2, PGY-4, PGY-5
- Peds: PGY-1, PGY-3, PGY-4
- Sports: PGY-2, PGY-3, PGY-4, PGY-5
- Foot and Ankle: PGY-2, PGY-4, PGY-5
Stamford Hospital (Stamford, CT)
- Recently opened (Fall 2016) teaching hospital located in Stamford, Connecticut, affiliated with Hospital for Special Surgery.
- Provides broad exposure to inpatient and outpatient community-based orthopaedic surgery and community-based trauma.
- Areas of focus include adult shoulder reconstruction, sports medicine, foot and ankle, and hand surgery.
- Residents are also exposed to emergent pathological conditions in a busy community-based emergency department. Residents work closely with only fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons. Residents rotating at this site attend Monday academic conferences at The Westchester Medical Center, and participate in one additional Stamford based conference on a weekly basis.
- Hand, Sports, Foot & Ankle, Shoulder-Elbow: PGY-3, PGY-5
Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital (New Rochelle, NY)
- Four month dedicated adult reconstruction preceptorship including inpatient and outpatient exposure during the PGY-3 year. Educational activity takes place under the direction of Dr. Steven B. Zelicof, the highest volume joint replacement surgeon in the Hudson Valley.
- PGY-4 year rotation dedicated to outpatient sports medicine and spine in two two-month blocks.
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Adult Recon: PGY-3
- Sports: PGY-4, PGY-5
- Spine: PGY-4, PGY-5
PGY-I
Rotations during the first year are split into one-month blocks. Residents will be provided six months of experience in orthopaedic surgery as an intern and will learn the basics of fracture care, inpatient care, and triage under supervision. Residents will spend a total of six months rotating with other departments including general surgery, trauma surgery, plastic surgery, radiology, vascular surgery, intensive care, and neurosurgery. Extensive clinical exposure and didactic teaching of musculoskeletal radiology will be a component of the orthopaedic rotation. Vacation time will be taken evenly amongst services. Call duties will vary based on department. Residents will attend the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course.
PGY-II
Residents will spend two months each on trauma, hand/foot and ankle, spine/peds, and night float (12-hour overnight). Residents on the hand/foot and ankle and spine/peds rotations will have exposure to a variety of elective hand, shoulder, elbow, foot and ankle, and spine cases. Residents will attend the AO Basic Fracture course.
PGY-III
Residents will spend four months each on adult reconstruction at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital and at Stamford Hospital. Residents will also spend two months on the Spine/Peds service and two months of night float. The adult reconstruction rotation is based at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital under the supervision of Steven Zelicof MD where residents perform approximately 15 joint reconstructions a week in addition to office hours. Residents on the spine service will be exposed to both elective and emergent treatment of disorders of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. Residents will also rotate on the pediatric service and will have extensive experience treating congenital abnormalities of extremities, scoliosis, as well as pediatric trauma. At Stamford Hospital residents will focus on shoulder/elbow and hand /foot and ankle subspecialties mainly in the ambulatory surgical center setting. Residents will take in-house overnight call as a night float rotation. Residents will attend the Arthroscopy Course (Academy Learning Center, Rosemont, IL).
PGY-IV
Residents will spend two months on pediatrics and sports medicine, two months on musculoskeletal oncology and arthroplasty medicine, four months on Foot and Ankle and Hand, two months of trauma service and two months of elective and research. The pediatric rotation is at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital on the main campus. During this rotation, residents will have extensive experience treating congenital abnormalities of the extremities, scoliosis, as well as pediatric orthopaedic trauma. The musculoskeletal oncology rotation is based at Westchester Medical Center. During this rotation residents will spend two months learning orthopaedic oncology both in the office and operating room. At Westchester Medical Center, residents will take at-home backup call approximately one in five nights and will take an average of two weekend day calls a month. At Westchester Medical Center, residents will be called for operative cases or if a junior resident requires assistance while on call. Four months is spent with a fellowship-trained sports medicine surgeon where the resident is exposed to both the operative and office-based aspects of the field. Residents will attend the Pathology Review Course (Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, NY). During the research month, residents are expected to work on a program requirement of one publishable project by graduation.
PGY-V
Residents will also spend two months on the trauma service and eight weeks of research time. Residents will have the ability to choose cases as they see fit to complete their training. Residents may use these research weeks to complete research projects prior to graduation. At Westchester Medical Center, residents will take at-home backup call approximately 1 in 5 nights and will take an average of two weekend day calls a month. At Westchester Medical Center, residents will be called for operative cases or if a junior resident requires assistance while on call. Residents will attend the Miller Review Course (Westminster, CO).
Research Experience
The department offers clinical, biomechanical, and basic science research opportunities to both residents and medical students in conjunction with the New York Medical College. Each resident is required to complete a project that is submitted for publication by the time of their graduation.
Faculty
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
Damon DelBello, MD
Section Chief of Pediatric Orthopaedics, Scolosis and Spinal Deformity, Orthopaedic Pediatric Spine, Pediatric Orthopaedics
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery
Richard Magill, MD
Chief of Hand and Upper Extremity, Microvascular Surgery, Orthopaedic Hand and Upper Extremity
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Hand Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine
Elizabeth Cody, MD
Orthopaedic Specialty: Foot and Ankle
Location: Stamford HSS
Residency: Hospital for Special Surgery
Fellowship: Duke University
Theodore Blaine, MD
Orthopaedic Specialty: Sports Medicine and Upper Extremity
Location: Stamford HSS
Residency: Strong Memorial Hospital
Fellowship: New York Presbyterian Hospital
John Dowdle, MD
Orthopaedic Specialty: Hand
Location: Stamford Hospital
Residency: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Fellowship: St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital
How to Apply
We accept three residents each year. All applications must be submitted through electronic residency matching services (ERAS). Your application will be considered complete with receipt of the following documents:
- Curriculum Vitae (ERAS generated CV is sufficient)
- Medical school transcript
- Scores from Part I and Part II (if taken) from the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE)
-
Personal statement
- At least three letters of recommendation completed by physicians – one should be from the chairman or program director of an orthopaedic surgery program. All letters need to be dated within the current academic year.
- Dean's letter
After thorough review of the applications, competitive applicants will be invited to interview. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. Interviews are scheduled during the month of January, and will be conducted virtually for the 2023-2024 interview season.
For further inquiry please contact our Residency Coordinator, Jennifer Francis at 914.493.8743 or jennifer.francis@wmchealth.org.
Contact Us
Chairman - Orthopaedic Surgery
David E. Asprinio, MD
Chairman and Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery
New York Medical College
100 Woods Road
Macy Pavilion Room 1053
Valhalla, NY 10595
Phone: 914.493.8743
Fax: 914.493.1230
David.Asprinio@wmchealth.org (preferred)
david_asprinio@nymc.edu
Program Director- Orthopaedic Surgery
David Wellman, MD
Program Director
New York Medical College
100 Woods Road
Macy Pavilion 1053
Valhalla, NY 10595
David.Wellman@wmchealth.org
david_wellman@nymc.edu
Program Coordinator- Orthopaedic Surgery
Jennifer Francis
Program Director
New York Medical College
100 Woods Road
Macy Pavilion 1053
Valhalla, NY 10595
Phone: 914.493.8743
Jennifer.Francis@wmchealth.org