Wright State University Program

Program Identity & Fit

Wright State's Orthopedic Surgery Residency is a five-year, mentor-based program anchored at Miami Valley Hospital, a Level-I trauma center generating roughly 4,400 trauma encounters and 130,000 ED visits annually, supplemented by pediatric orthopedics at Dayton Children's, adult reconstruction at community and VA sites, and a newly added military training pathway with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The curriculum emphasizes one-to-one resident-faculty continuity of care through three-month subspecialty blocks, protected didactic time, an in-house skills/arthroscopy simulation lab, and cadaver workshops, reflecting a structured, closely supervised educational philosophy rather than a purely service-driven one. Every resident completes a mentored research project, and the program offers an optional six-year track with a dedicated musculoskeletal research year, indicating research is expected but not the program's central identity; an in-house Orthopedic Trauma Fellowship further signals a strong trauma/reconstructive orientation. The program values broad-based clinical competence across all major subspecialties, disciplined educational engagement, and gradual, closely mentored autonomy over narrow early subspecialization.