One of the oldest orthopedic residencies in the nation, Brown’s “fracture” residency began in 1938 and transformed into a five-year program based at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, The Miriam Hospital and the Providence Veterans Affairs Hospital. There are typically six residents in each year of the program. The residency is followed by one year as a junior attending for which a Trauma Fellowship is awarded. This unique year provides the Brown graduate with a tremendous breadth of independent experience.   The Silver Family Fellowship award allows interested residents to experience the rewards of providing orthopedic care in underserved regions around the globe. 

The breadth of experience during the residency is vast. Hasbro Children’s Hospital is the only children’s hospital in the state, and Rhode Island Hospital is the only level 1 trauma center in Rhode Island. Both provide the vast majority of specialty orthopedic care the region. The Total Joint Center at The Miriam Hospital annually performs nearly 1800 joint arthroplasty surgeries, including hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, and wrist replacement. Furthermore, the Orthopaedic surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital perform an average of 14,000 operations and receive nearly 200,000 office visits per year at University Orthopedics, the practice arm of the full-time orthopaedic faculty. The faculty supervised/resident run continuity clinics see approximately 75,000 patient visits over the course of a year. Subspecialty experience in Pediatrics, Tumor, Trauma, Sports Medicine, Hand Surgery, Shoulder and Elbow, Adult Reconstruction, Foot and Ankle and Spine is all obtained at one of our local facilities.

Opportunities for clinical and basic science research are available, and each resident has four months of protected research time during the residency. The Orthopedic research laboratory at Brown University is one of the top-funded orthopedic labs in the country, with projects ranging from ligament reconstruction, cartilage biomechanics, and biochemistry, molecular biology to mechanical testing of spine constructs and 3D kinematic modeling. Our research division is staffed by a cadre of full-time scientists who assist residents in experimental design, technique, and data analysis.

The Brown residency program is unique in that our orthopedic residents stay on for an additional 6th year of training in our Orthopedic Trauma fellowship. Fellows function as junior attendings with their independent surgical cases and practice. This additional year allows participation in the acute management of orthopedic injuries and postoperative care. Fellows gain insight into an orthopedic practice's administrative and organizational aspects, as well as how to balance career and home life. 

Our goal at Brown is to produce the next generation of physician leaders for the Orthopedic community, both nationally at the highest academic levels, as well as locally in the many outstanding community practices throughout the country. I invite you to learn more about our program by browsing our site, or better yet, visiting us in person. I look forward to welcoming you to Providence!

Ray Hsu, MD
Residency Program Director
Department of Orthopaedics