University of Missouri-Columbia Program

Program Identity & Fit

The University of Missouri Orthopaedic Surgery residency is an academic, university-based five-year program anchored at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, with a research infrastructure (Thompson Laboratory for Regenerative Orthopaedics, P-CORE, a dedicated pre-residency Clinical Research Fellowship) that is unusually deep for a program this size. Residents are required to complete at least one research project before graduating, and many extend into multi-year publication pipelines spanning biomechanics, translational animal models, and clinical outcomes research well beyond the minimum. Graduate outcomes split heavily toward subspecialty fellowship (sports, spine, trauma, adult reconstruction, hand, foot & ankle) at nationally recognized programs, though a meaningful minority enter general orthopaedic practice, including some remaining regionally in Missouri. The program appears to value residents who engage proactively in sustained scholarly output and leadership activity, leveraging faculty national/regional connections, rather than treating research as a checkbox requirement.