Hand Surgery Fellowship

Overview

The Mass General Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery fellowship provides a broad exposure from the shoulder to the fingertip. It is designed to provide a comprehensive experience in hand surgery and to prepare our fellows for independent practice at the completion of their training. Our fellowship affords a substantial amount of clinical responsibility and autonomy while also emphasizing the benefits of senior mentorship and teaching. Throughout the year, fellows are given the opportunity to manage myriad clinical problems under the direction of our faculty and to pursue academic endeavors such as clinical and basic science research. Our program is intended to attract mature, motivated surgical trainees who are interested in becoming leaders in hand surgery.

We offer three fellowship positions: two for surgeons trained in orthopaedic surgery and one for surgeons trained in plastic surgery. We believe that this provides a rich and diverse educational experience for our fellows.

Our fellowship’s strengths are high case volume and a comprehensive exposure to all aspects of elective, acute, and reconstructive hand surgery. We offer ample research opportunities and provide integration with our Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Occupational Therapy Departments.

Our current faculty includes Dr. Neal Chen, Dr. Jesse Jupiter, Dr. Sang-Gil Lee, Dr. Chaitanya Mudgal, Dr. Curtis Cetrulo, Dr. Kyle Eberlin and Dr. Jonathan Winograd. Each practice incorporates all components of upper extremity surgery including arthroscopy, peripheral nerve surgery, microsurgery, and complex acute and late reconstructive surgery.

In an effort to expand the breadth of experience for our fellows, the Mass General Hand fellowship has partnered with the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Boston Children's Hospital Hand Surgery fellowship to provide additional adult and pediatric hand surgery training for our orthopaedic trainees over a three-month period. The Mass General Hand Fellow trained in plastic surgery rotates at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital and Shriners Hospital for additional clinical exposure over a two-month period. This experience has proven invaluable in expanding the exposure of cases, surgical techniques, and patient populations by incorporating the strengths of these programs into the Mass General experience.

Curriculum

Upon entering the Hand Surgery Fellowship, the hand surgery fellow is actively engaged in the activities of the hand surgical service in both outpatient, inpatient, operative, and emergent care of patients. During each week, each fellow follows his assigned attending’s schedule in the outpatient and operating room settings. Inpatient care of patients will be overseen by the fellow with the assistance of the residents.

In addition, the fellows take call as attending hand surgeons with the back-up support of the faculty. The call averages every third night. The Massachusetts General Hospital is a major referral center for Hand injuries and therefore sees a high volume of patients. The patients seen and treated on emergent basis additionally fall under the responsibility of the hand surgery fellows. Patients who are sent to the Massachusetts General Hospital are seen in the emergency room by an orthopedics or plastics resident as well as the hand fellow and a decision is made as to the nature of their problems, prioritizing their care, and executing what is necessary for the emergent care of these patients, falls under the responsibility of the hand surgical fellows. There is attending staff backup and coverage and this is extended based upon the needs and graded experience of the individual fellows. The nature of the emergent cases reflect all degrees of traumatic injuries to the upper limb. The fellows gain experience in management of bone, soft tissue, vascular, neurologic, and combined injuries. They additionally form a part of the trauma team's capacity to deal with musculoskeletal injuries more proximally in the upper limb. During the twelve months, they expand their experience and skills to become fully capable of managing nearly all types of emergent lesions of the hand and upper limb.

Clinical Experience

Fellows maintain their own clinic one half-day per week. An attending is again available for consultation. The clinic will involve independent evaluation and management of problems related to the entire upper extremity including clinical evaluation, diagnostic interventions, decision-making, and operative and non-operative treatment. Fellows can schedule operative cases as the primary surgeon as necessary to treat their patients. The clinic is meant to function as the fellow’s own private hours.

Patients seen and treated as an inpatient in the hospital equally become a part of the hand surgical fellows' responsibilities. Patient management issues are monitored along with the residents, clinical decision making responsibilities also in a graded fashion are part of the hand surgical fellows experience, and medical and surgical problems that arise are discussed by the fellows between the residents and full time attending staff. The fellows additionally have direct responsibility of patients that they have seen and treated on an elective or emergent basis and entirely manage their care in the inpatient area along with the surgical residents.

All cases seen and treated on an operative basis have involvement of the hand surgery fellows; these include both those on elective as well as on an emergent basis. The fellows are responsible for coordinating the preoperative assessment, acquiring and organizing the needed instrumentation, and working with the residents as to the management of these operative procedures when there are ongoing emergencies, outpatient clinical responsibilities, or other activities that are simultaneously occurring. The fellows have an opportunity to be actively involved in all aspects of surgical care throughout the twelve months of their experience. As with non-operative management, there is a graded sense of responsibility as to the fellows' role of elective surgery as the goal is to endow in each hand surgery fellow a firm background and understanding of critical assessment and decision making as well as the performance of operative techniques.

How to Apply

Thank you for your interest in our Hand Surgery Fellowship Program.

We are no longer accepting applications for 2021-2022. We will accept applications for 2022-2023 from September 1, 2020 - December 15, 2020. Please note: We do not accept candidates who have completed a general surgery residency only.

Please complete the ASSH Online Hand Fellowship Application.

One of your three letters of recommendation should be from the Chief of Service under whom you are currently training.

Interviews for 2021-2022 will take place on February 8, 2020.

This program participates in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). For an applicant agreement, please contact the NRMP at the following address:

National Residency Matching Program
2450 North Street, NW, Suite 201
Washington DC 20037

Phone: 202-828-0676

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email Wanda Gonzalez, Fellowship Coordinator.