Experience

Our twelve-month Combined Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Spine Fellowship takes place at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC).

M Health Fairview’s University of Minnesota Medical Center is based on two campuses on either side of the Mississippi River, and is a quaternary care referral site for the entire upper Midwest region, from Montana to the upper peninsula of Michigan.

During the year, the fellow will spend time in the outpatient clinic and operating room devoted to patient care responsibilities. Fellows are given clinical and surgical responsibilities commensurate with their capabilities and experience. There is minimal inpatient work since this is assigned to residents and nurse practitioners. Fellows are welcome to scrub in on any and all surgical cases.

The primary responsibility of the fellow is planning surgical cases and providing both surgical and outpatient assistance. Secondary responsibilities include teaching residents, and giving educational presentations. One of the requirements for graduation from the program is completion of a research project.

M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center, West Bank (Riverside)

M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center, East Bank

Inside the operating room

Previous fellows have completed an excess of 250 surgeries. Fellows have the opportunity to utilize state-of-the art intraoperative technology including the O-ARM^®, robotic guidance technology, intraoperative neuro-monitoring technology and surgical navigation, and more. These technologies can help streamline surgical workflow and improve patient outcomes.

Surgical experience

Fellows are exposed to the management of pediatric and adult cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and pelvic cases, treating degenerative, deformity, extradural tumor, tumor infection, and fracture disorders. This variety provides the fellow with the opportunity to tailor their education to their area(s) of interest in all spinal regions. Fellows are exposed to a variety of procedures such as:

Pedicle screw fixation using computer navigation (cervical, throracic, and lumbosacral)
Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation
Pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO)
Pelvic fixation
Sacroiliac joint (SI joint) fusions
Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions (TLIF)
Transforaminal thoracic interbody fusions (TTIF)
Transpsoas/Pre-psoas lateral lumbar interbody fusions (LLIF)
Vertebral column resection (VCR)
Minimally-invasive decompression (via tubular retractor)
Cervical discectomy and fusion
Cervical arthroplasty

IMG950591.3gp

CASE PORTFOLIO

Spine Surgery Fellowship Portfolio.pptx

fellowship summary BY THE NUMBERS

Service Dates: July 6, 2020 - June 23, 2021

Upon completion of the fellowship, fellows will demonstrate understanding of collaboration between varied healthcare environments, including quality assessment and improvement, cost effectiveness of interventions, and assessment of patient satisfaction. Patient communication, interactive skills with ancillary personnel, and physician-to-physician communication is supervised directly by the faculty. This competency is taught on a daily basis and evaluated as part of the electronic evaluation system and through a 360° discussion at the semi-annual clinical competency committee (CCC) meetings.

MENTORSHIP AND ACADEMIC CAREER TRAINING
Robust Research resources

The fellowship program strives to develop innovative surgeons that have strong surgical, academic, and leadership skills necessary for their career. The fellow will be expected to complete a minimum of one novel research project during their fellowship training year, and to present that research at a local or national meeting. A variety of resources for interdisciplinary spine research is available to the fellow, including a full-time research coordinator to facilitate the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, a statistician, access to the University's biomedical library, and more.

Research Committee
Research is organized through the department’s Research Committee (RC). The RC oversees scholarship priorities and resources, provides scientific review for projects and IRB needs, and supports faculty-sponsored student and resident research projects. Several laboratories are available for collaboration with department faculty, including the Veterinary School, Dental School, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR), Biomedical Engineering, and the Institute for Engineering in Medicine.

Biomechanics and Human Performance Lab – Riverside Campus
This facility, which includes mechanical testing devices and a unit dedicated to finite element analysis and graphical evaluation of lung volume with spinal deformity, focuses on basic biomechanics of ligament reconstruction, spinal fixation, disc replacement, in vivo shoulder biomechanics, and methods of internal fixation. The laboratory has received funding through the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and industry-related grants. Additional biomechanics resources are available at Hennepin County Medical Center (Excelen Center for Bone and Joint Research and Education), with a 6 degree of freedom servohydraulic spine loading device (MTS), studies on a variety of bone fracture stabilization methods, spinal fusion devices, and soft tissue characterization. Evaluation of surgical skill and competency assessment is conducted at both sites.

Veterinary School – St. Paul Campus

Several Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, PhD faculty have research-based appointments, and are available to assist with animal model development, study design, and data evaluation and interpretation. Current studies include cartilage damage and repair (osteochondritis dessecans, OCD, in veterinary population and humans), meniscus repair, and imaging (with CMRR).

Center for Magnetic Resonance Research – University Campus

This world-class facility engages in development of MRI techniques to better image human tissues in health and disease. They have a dedicated musculoskeletal research department with senior faculty and postdoctoral fellows with a current focus is on cartilage damage development in OCD and evaluation of healing in the meniscus. Micro CT imaging is available with CMRR.

Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) – University Campus