Hand & Wrist Fellowship

Clinical Experience

Fellows will proceed through four rotations in the form of an apprenticeship (Dr.’s Mark Cohen, John Fernandez, Robert Wysocki, and Xavier Simcock), where during each rotation the trainee spends consistent time both in the office and the operating room with primarily a single faculty member to maintain effective continuity of care. The design is for each rotation to be performed twice, each for 6 weeks, as fellows will often have far different experiences and takeaways early versus late in their fellowship year. 

Outpatient clinics include urban and suburban patient populations, and surgical settings include Rush University Medical Center and its affiliates, most frequently Gold Coast Surgicenter on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago, and Rush Oak Brook Surgery Center in the near west suburbs of Chicago. Both are highly efficient and modern facilities that create a high-yield surgical learning environment.  We also provide dedicated congenital hand experience with Dr. Felicity Fishman at the Shriners Children’s Chicago. While the amount of time spent at the Shriners facility varies depending on fellow interest, we assure that the fellow spends sufficient time at the facility to be comfortable with basic pediatric hand management if they choose.

The diversity in outpatient clinic patient populations and operative settings will broaden the fellow's experience and teach them to thrive in multiple health care delivery systems, a critical part of the fellow's training. As a thriving private academic practice, the fellow will also be exposed to an efficient model of orthopedic health care delivery that will hopefully serve them well in future practice.

Physicians

• Mark Cohen, MD
• John Fernandez, MD
• Nitin Goyal, MD
• Xavier Simcock, MD
• Robert Wysocki, MD

As of the 2027-2028 fellowship class, we will also transition from ACGME accreditation of 1 to a 2-fellow-per-year program. We believe this is a fantastic positive for the fellowship, as it opens up more time to spend with Dr. Simcock, including additional shoulder surgery, and also leads to increased collaboration and camaraderie between multiple fellows. Our academic curriculum is specifically dedicated to functioning at a fellow level and not just generalized as a conference for all trainees. All case discussions, whether in person in our indications conference or virtual over text, involve the fellow as one of our faculty. Clinical and surgical autonomy is commensurate with the expectation that our fellow will be highly functioning upon graduation.

Our fellows also have full access to each faculty member’s surgical schedules and is encouraged to leave their assigned rotation if there are unique surgical cases to experience with another faculty member. There is sufficient ancillary support with Physician Assistants that this flexibility is easily supported. Our surgeons are high volume, with Drs. Cohen, Fernandez, Wysocki, and Simcock collectively perform over 3500 cases per year, creating a wealth of case opportunities for our fellows.

Educational Curriculum

The educational curriculum includes a weekly dedicated hand conference attended by each of the faculty on Tuesday evenings, which consists of:

1. Topic-based, resident-focused lecture-and-discussion conference
2. Topic-based fellow-specific conference, based on a 50+ topic year-long curriculum covering the entirety of hand, wrist, and elbow surgery. This conference is intended to be Socratic and high-level, covering controversies at a fellow rather than an introductory/resident level. A reading list is provided covering all topics
3. Indications conference where faculty present their controversial cases from the week where there is still controversy regarding the best treatment path moving forward, whether operative or non-operative. This conference tends to result in lively high-level discussions of the underlying controversies.

There is also the opportunity for cadaveric sessions, depending on fellow preference, as frequently as once per quarter to cover topics such as surgical approaches, flap coverage, and implant placement techniques. We often collaborate with various implant companies for these cadaver sessions.

Research Opportunities

All fellows will be required to participate in research and collaboration with basic scientists, residents, and students at the medical center, who are encouraged to help make the research process efficient and productive. We have a dedicated full-time research assistant within our division, typically a 3rd/4th year medical student pursuing orthopedic residency, who can greatly help streamline the research process. Research funds will be available solely for this purpose. Regular bi-monthly research meetings for the hand division will be held to monitor progress, ensure regulatory compliance, and troubleshoot potential problems on all active projects.

The Future for Our Fellows

We believe that, with our combination of strong academic pursuits in an efficient private academic setting, we set our fellows up for success regardless of whether they choose an academic, private practice, or employed model. Nearly half of our graduates thus far, over the last decade of our program’s existence, have chosen an academic career. We believe this speaks to our program’s ability to create a passion for academics and strongly advocate for our fellows who pursue an academic path.

We also work hard to maintain a strong connection with our graduates as professional friends in perpetuity. This is achieved via yearly dinners at the ASSH annual meeting, and most uniquely through a robust WhatsApp group chat with all faculty and incoming, current, and former fellows. This provides the opportunity for robust case discussions where all of us can feel free to share cases and opinions.

In summary, this program is unique in its ability to teach general hand surgery, microsurgery including trauma and reconstruction, as well as congenital hand surgery and surgery of the elbow and shoulder in a high-volume and diverse setting, which will help foster lifelong learning, collaboration, and camaraderie.

Applications

Applicants must have successfully completed a U.S. or Canadian orthopedic residency prior to the fellowship year and meet the requirements for permanent licensure in Illinois.

To Apply: The Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush Hand, Upper Extremity, and Microvascular Surgery Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center is participating in the American Society for Surgery of the Hand’s (ASSH) electronic application platform.  We will not accept any applications through the mail.  To apply, please go to the ASSH website (https://www.assh.org/applications/s/fellowshiphome).

The deadline for applications is November 15th. We will conduct interviews in February/March each winter. Rush Participates in the NRMP Hand Fellowship Specialty Match. For a Hand Surgery Specialty Match applicant agreement, please go to the website at www.NRMP.org.

For further information or questions, please contact:

Juanita Pounds-Walker

Rush University Medical Center

Department of Orthopedic Surgery Education Office Attention: Hand Fellowship

1611 W. Harrison St., Suite 201

Chicago, IL 60612

E-mail:  juanita_pounds-walker@rush.edu

Phone: (312)-942-0063