Education
Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program
Allegheny General Hospital offers a well-rounded five-year residency program. Each year, we accept four PGY-1 residents into the program. At any given time, approximately 24 operating attendings provide guidance for a total of 15 residents. By keeping a 2:1 attending-to-resident ratio, we ensure that each student gets personalized attention. Throughout the course of his or her residency, each student gains a tremendous amount of clinical experience—both in the office and the operating room. Traditionally, our residents complete anywhere from 1,800 to 2,500 cases over the course of five years.
In addition to gaining operative experience, residents attend scheduled didactic lectures throughout the course of the work week. These lectures cover a variety of the core topics in orthopaedic surgery. Each service contributes to the lecture series, either on a weekly or bi-monthly schedule. This diversity of subject matter helps to expand our residents’ knowledge base.
Despite the number of operative cases and the frequency of lectures, each resident maintains 100 percent compliance with the 80-hour work week, as set forth by the ACGME. Hours are tracked by punch clock and range from 60-80 hours per week, depending on the resident’s current service requirements. Residents rotate through a variety of services each year, reflected by the diversity of cases logged each month. All major services are currently represented at AGH. Four services provide either traditional (hand and upper extremity) or non-traditional (joint, sports, trauma) exposure to fellows. The operative experience of the residents at AGH is enhanced by the presence of the fellows and is in no way hampered.
The Orthopaedic Program at Allegheny General Hospital was last reviewed in November of 2009. The site visit led to a five-year accreditation without deficiency, and we were approved for a fourth position.
Residency Administration
Chairman: Patrick Demeo, MD
Residency Director : Daniel Altman, MD
Assistant Residency Directors: Sam Akhavan, MD; Mark Sangimino, MD
Residency Coordinator: Leslie Hays (lhays@wpahs.org)
