Educational demographics of orthopaedic surgery department chairs

Becoming chair of an academic clinical department is a tremendous achievement that takes many years of experience and clinical excellence.

The purpose of this study was to determine the educational demographics of current orthopaedic surgery department chairs in the United States.

A complete list of orthopaedic surgery residency programs was obtained from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) 2019-2020 list of residency programs. Department chairs were identified through an online search. Educational data, including where the department chair went to medical school, residency, fellowship, and type of fellowship completed were obtained.

A total of 145 orthopaedic department chairs were identified. The most attended medical schools by department chairs were Baylor (6 of 145, 4.1%) and Northwestern (6 of 145, 4.1%). The University of Rochester was the most common orthopaedic residency attended (9 of 145, 6.2%) and Harvard was the most common orthopaedic clinical fellowship (20 of 133, 15.0%). On average, it took 17.9 years from completion of clinical training to being named department chair.

This study provides insight into the academic credentials, length of clinical experience, and research productivity of current orthopaedic surgery department chairs. Certain training programs may be more likely to produce department chairs and, in general, an orthopaedic surgeon is more likely to become chair at an institution where he/she previously trained. Finally, research productivity is clearly an important factor in becoming chair, as most chairs have high h-indices and a consistent track record of research excellence.