Critical Evaluation of Curriculum Reporting on Orthopedic Sports Medicine Fellowship Websites.

Abstract

Introduction: Orthopedic sports medicine fellowship program websites likely serve as a preliminary source of information for prospective fellows. Websites give potential applicants a way to gain an understanding of the content and quality of a fellowship program's curriculum. Therefore, the purpose of this current study was to evaluate the curriculum factors reported on orthopedic sports medicine fellowship websites, with a secondary purpose of comparing curriculum between smaller and larger fellowship programs.

Methods: A comprehensive list of surgical sports medicine fellowships was compiled from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) website in February 2023. Each program's fellowship website was then analyzed to determine if key curriculum components were reported to be in the curriculum. Small fellowships were defined as having fewer than four fellows and large fellowships were considered as having four or greater fellows.

Results: Overall, 90 surgical sports medicine fellowships were identified from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine website. Research was by far the most prevalent, with 87 programs (97%) highlighting research opportunities. By contrast, only 20 programs (22%) mentioned training in ultrasonography techniques and a mere seven programs (7.8%) listed sports psychology as part of their curriculum. Larger fellowship programs more frequently report cadaver surgical training on their websites than smaller fellowship programs (50% vs. 24%, P = 0.031). All other curriculum aspects were reported at statistically similar rates between large and small fellowship programs (all P > 0.05).

Conclusion: Orthopedic sports medicine fellowship websites prioritize research compared with other valuable curriculum factors, such as ultrasonography and psychology training. Fellows interested in cadaver training may find training more closely aligned with their interests at a larger institution. Sports medicine fellowships should consider expanding the breadth of their websites to include a wider variety of curricular elements to increase transparency for applicants and potentially attract applicants with interests closely aligned with their program.