Cleveland Clinic Foundation Program

Program Identity & Fit

Cleveland Clinic's orthopaedic residency is an elite academic, quaternary-referral program built around a rotating surgical internship, an optional dedicated research year, and four years of subspecialty-rich clinical training supported by a dedicated Orthopaedic Research Center offering both basic science and clinical research tracks. The program's placement record is dominated by competitive subspecialty fellowships (adult reconstruction, spine, sports medicine, hand, foot & ankle) at top-tier academic centers, indicating a structure oriented almost entirely toward fellowship training rather than general orthopaedic practice. Residents train within a high-volume, multi-subspecialty department embedded in one of the nation's largest integrated health systems, giving exposure to complex, tertiary/quaternary referral pathology across all orthopaedic subspecialties. The consistent inclusion of a research year and steady stream of resident publications/research staff support signals that the program values academic productivity and subspecialty focus as core to resident development.