Rutgers Health-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a university-based, five-year orthopaedic surgery residency at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, combining academic and private-practice faculty across a Level-1 trauma center (RWJUH), a community hospital (RWJ Somerset), a hand/outpatient surgical center (St. Peter's/UCAS), and a specialized four-week rotation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering for musculoskeletal oncology. The program offers structured subspecialty exposure across trauma, pediatrics, hand, sports, spine, adult reconstruction, and tumor, with early operative autonomy (e.g., pelvic/acetabular trauma cases beginning PGY-2) and a resident-run scoliosis and trauma clinic model. Research is a formal graduation requirement - every resident must submit a paper for publication - with dedicated research time built into training, reflecting an expectation of scholarly productivity alongside clinical volume. The small size (three residents per year) and breadth of rotations across academic and community sites suggest a program valuing well-rounded surgical competency across the full subspecialty spectrum rather than early subspecialty tracking.