A Dedicated Research Rotation Increases Orthopaedic Residency Scholarly Activity

Introduction: Although clinical research has traditionally been a part of orthopaedic residency, there are now certain core requirements created by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which outline the type of research activities to be completed during residency. However, there are no specific details included in the ACGME guidelines regarding how these milestones are to be met. Nor is there specificity regarding expectations of scholarly activity to be completed by the time of graduation. There is a paucity of literature demonstrating the effectiveness of implementing a dedicated research block in an orthopaedic surgical residency, especially in the community setting where limited research-related resources are available.

Methods: We implemented a dedicated research rotation along with a set of research milestones and guidelines at our single orthopaedic surgery community residency program. A search was performed through PubMed using residents' and faculty members' names to find publications included a 7-year period from 2015 to 2022 to determine number of publications by residents and faculty. Scholarly activity of faculty was analyzed and quantified using self-reported annual surveys.

Results: The average annual number of resident publications (by all 25 residents) increased from 2 to 26 after implementation of a dedicated research rotation. Faculty's scholarly activity, as measured by the following criteria, increased as well: number of publications (from 22 to 55), conference presentations (from 51 to 83), and other presentations (from 43 to 72).

Conclusion: Implementation of a dedicated research rotation in a community orthopaedic residency program is associated with an increased publication rate in major academic journals among residents and faculty. There is also an observed association with implementation of a dedicated resident research rotation and an increase in faculty scholarly activity satisfying ACGME faculty requirements.