Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

Penn State Hershey's Orthopaedic Surgery Residency is a five-year, university-based program anchored at a quaternary-care academic medical center that also serves as the Level I trauma referral hub for a rural catchment area stretching from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, giving residents exposure spanning routine outpatient orthopaedics to complex helicopter-transported trauma. Structurally, the program pairs a senior and junior resident on each of eight subspecialty services under fellowship-trained faculty, with a dedicated Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory (cell/molecular biology, biomechanics, finite element modeling) that every resident is expected to use for a mandatory investigative project. Daily didactics, an operative indications conference, tumor board, and monthly peer review and journal club sessions reflect a structured academic curriculum layered onto high clinical volume. The program's emphasis on resident-scientist pairing, protected lab access, and a formal scholarly project requirement signals value placed on candidates who can engage seriously with basic-science or biomechanical research alongside high-volume trauma and general orthopaedic training.