Welcome to the Dell Medical School Orthopaedic Surgery Residency program at The University of Texas at Austin — an institution with a track record of excellence in both undergraduate and graduate-level education. We are a young program, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2016, with our first intern class starting in the summer of 2017. Our program accommodates four residents per class and offers the full breadth of orthopaedic subspecialty training.
Austin is one of the fasting-growing cities in the nation with a 35.7% population growth from 2006-2016 and a population total exceeding 2 million people. In the heart of this metropolis is a state-of-the-art teaching hospital completed in May 2017; additional educational opportunities abound within Ascension Seton, a not-for-profit health care system serving Central Texas.
Our training program is based primarily at the Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, a 75,000-visit emergency department and urban Level 1 trauma center that is the referral center for all of Central Texas. Dell Seton Medical Center at UT is the heart of our program’s core values, acting as the safety net for the city’s most sick and vulnerable patients as well as providing unparalleled training in orthopaedic trauma care and complex total joint replacement.
Outstanding rotations at our affiliated sites round out our residents’ training. Dell Children’s Medical Center is a pediatric Level 1 trauma center and tertiary referral center. Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin is a busy private community hospital with 38 operating suites and more than 1,000 joint replacement procedures per year. Both Dell Seton Medical Center and Ascension Seton Medical Center are named as Solucient 100 Top Hospitals and both are winners of the Magnet Nursing Award, the American Nursing Association’s top award. In order to maximize resident exposure and provide a balanced experience in other health care settings, we also have rotations at three different surgery centers in the Austin area: Texas Orthopaedics, Medical Park Tower and Strictly Pediatrics. Through these experiences, our residents become fully equipped to perform both inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures, reflecting current trends in orthopaedic care that emphasize value, efficiency and innovation.
Our educational model combines the best components of a traditional orthopaedic residency program with the innovative mission and goals of Dell Medical School. Opportunities for additional graduate degrees within the UT Austin system are available to residents.
The unique opportunity of starting a new medical school in Austin has attracted top faculty from around the country as well as the best and brightest surgeons in the Austin community. The community faculty in Austin have been teaching medical students, residents and fellows since 1955, which facilitates a seamless integration of orthopaedic residents into the community. Kevin Bozic, M.D., and David Ring, M.D., are household names in orthopaedic surgery with vast experience in teaching residents and fellows for decades. Both have also directed research programs that are the envy of any in the world in the areas of total joint replacement, hand surgery, health services research and comprehensive patient care. A quick review of our faculty profiles shows the breadth and depth of expertise dedicated to resident education.
Our didactic program focuses on interprofessional integration and educational opportunities as well as health care transformation and innovations in health care delivery. Lectures are supplemented by our bio-skills simulation program from app-based simulation to learn the fundamental steps of surgery, to dry models to practice making the appropriate osteotomies and deployment of implants to cadaver-based rehearsal and skills assessment.
Our residents are servant-leaders who develop an understanding of the importance of health care service to people who have been historically underserved locally and abroad through direct patient care, knowledge exchange and exposure to a global health experience. Accordingly, each resident has the opportunity to participate in an international orthopaedic mission during their residency.
While surgical education is a rigorous endeavor by necessity, we believe in work-life balance. And there are few places more suited to this goal than Austin! Located in the Central Texas Hill Country, Austin is a great place to live and work. As the state capital, Austin has rich politics and history. It is an outdoor haven with 11,800 acres of dedicated parks and greenbelt through downtown. This includes hike-and-bike trails, boating opportunities on Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis, botanical gardens and natural springs.
The local economy is strong, based in the high-tech industries and university centers. Austin is considered the “live music capital of the world” and is home to South by Southwest, Austin City Limits and many local music venues. Our city has been listed in Kiplinger’s “Top 10 Cities to Live, Work and Play,” Outside Magazine’s “America’s Best Cities” and several other national top-10 lists, including Relocate America’s “Overall Best Places to Move” and “Earth-Friendly Location,” CNN Money’s “Best Big Cities,” Prevention Magazine’s “Top Cities for Walking” and Reader’s Digest’s “Cleanest Cities.”
Thank you for visiting with us and taking the time to learn about our program. We are proud of what it has to offer. We look forward to hosting you in our dynamic medical community, and we hope you consider training with us.
Anthony “A.J.” Johnson, M.D., FACS, FAOA
Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program Director
Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin