Rotations

Our faculty members have expertise in various subspecialties in upper extremity surgery. Therefore, our rotations are designed to provide you with balanced exposure to these various subspecialties while also considering your individual needs.

While all fellows must meet the program’s basic requirements, we’ll enable you to design a rotation schedule that’s compatible with your clinical interests.

Typically, you’ll work with our attending surgeons on a 2-3 month block rotation schedule.

Our rotations will help you develop the skills you need to be capable of independent practice. We provide experience in:

• the repair, resection and reconstruction of defects of form and function of the hand
• the design, construction and transfer of flaps and the transplantation of tissues
• surgical and ancillary methods of treatment of tumors
• the management of complex wounds
• the use of alloplastic materials

Further, as a fellow in our program, you will receive comprehensive, mentored microsurgical training. Throughout the year, you’ll progress from basic microsurgical techniques to more complex reconstruction. Our fellows benefit from significant exposure to clinical microsurgery on both an emergent and elective basis. 

You will have the opportunity to participate in replantation and revascularization surgery. If you so choose, you will have the option to participate in microsurgical reconstruction and free tissue transfer with plastic surgery faculty, caring for both trauma patients and performing post-tumor excision.

Rotating through our clinical training sites will strengthen your medical knowledge in a number of areas, including:

In our fellowship, we give you the opportunity to observe and perform surgery in ambulatory facilities, expanding your knowledge of various surgical procedures and increasing your experience with continuity of care.

Experiencing ambulatory surgery in an outpatient facility, instead of a hospital setting, is an important element of a fellowship. You will learn to discern between the two settings in terms of patient selection, requirements for preoperative clearance, insurance coverage and available surgical amenities in operating rooms.

At ambulatory facilities and other training sites where patients are scheduled ahead of time, we provide you with a schedule and description of the cases. This gives you the opportunity to research cases as needed based on available medical records and resources.

Our training sites for ambulatory experience include:

• Ambulatory Surgery Center of Western New York
• Buffalo Surgery Center
• ECMC Ambulatory Care Center 
• Millard Fillmore Ambulatory Surgery Center 

We’ll help you enhance your understanding of all facets of bone and soft tissue disorders (congenital and acquired) of the hand and upper extremity both emergency and non-emergency, in adult and pediatric patients. At our Kaleida Health sites, our curriculum includes basic science, pathophysiology and the surgical and nonsurgical treatment of these conditions in both inpatient and outpatient settings. These training sites include:

• John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital
• Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital

Providing care at Erie County Medical Center, a Level I trauma center, you’ll evaluate acute injuries and learn all facets of bone and soft tissue trauma of the hand and upper extremity. 

To help you gain deeper insight into all facets of congenital hand and upper extremity deformities, we arrange for our fellows to train out of town, at the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital.

Rotating through this site provides you with experience evaluating and classifying congenital deformities and formulating appropriate case-specific treatment plans. You’ll have the opportunity to pay particular attention to embryology; deformities of the hand, fingers, thumb, wrist and forearm; and congenital contracture.

This rotation enables you to discuss and review surgical and non-surgical alternatives with specific attention to long-term outcomes. You gain beneficial exposure to microvascular and non-microvascular alternatives to treat congenital hand deformities. 

Rotating through the Buffalo VA Medical Center, you’ll increase your knowledge of bone and soft tissue disorders of the hand and upper extremity, with a specialized focus on reconstructive surgery for military-related injuries and sequelae.

Moreover — in terms of protocol, policy, interactions with other health professionals, and use of the electronic medical record system — you’ll learn to navigate within a federal medical center.

At many of our training sites, you’ll rotate with your attending physician — who will have office hours at the site — and you’ll gain comprehensive experience with orthopaedic hand, upper extremity and shoulder cases.

At some sites, you’ll learn to treat patients in comprehensive orthopaedic medical offices that provide imaging, access to procedure schedulers and a dedicated room for research. These sites, which enable you to work with the program administrators and coordinators, give you the opportunity to improve care through evaluations of the program and an annual quality assurance/quality improvement project. These locations include:

• UBMD Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine locations
• Excelsior Orthopaedics

Other locations show you what it’s like to work in a smaller clinical setting, which is important because you’ll learn to operate in settings that differ from the larger clinical environments. These rotation locations include:

• Summit Wellness Center
• Excelsior Orthopaedics — Orchard Park

Additionally, rotating through Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center is significant for your surgical education. It will strengthen your understanding of all facets of all hand and upper extremity (including shoulder) surgical cases.