THE FELLOWS

See full interview here

Why did you choose to come to SickKids for your paediatric orthopaedic fellowship?

I chose SickKids for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, it was the best fit for me when I interviewed. The faculty are friendly and open and seemed to provide the right mix of independence and guidance for what I needed to get out of fellowship, and I just felt like I fit in. In addition, I trained under alumni of the program and recognized that most of my mentors and leaders in the field were all SickKids alumni, so I wanted to join the long list of successful pediatric orthopedic surgeons who cut their teeth there. I was also incredibly fortunate to have grown up in Toronto, so returning home for a year, after a decade of living in the US, and getting to spend time with my family and friends was invaluable to me.

Can you remember your first few weeks at SickKids? What were your initial impressions?

As the “local” I was tasked with the very first day on call. Everyone was so nice, incredibly welcoming, and very helpful since other than the hospital, I didn’t know where anything was. Every day I would go home and tell anyone who would listen about the crazy or cool stuff that I had seen or done. It was surreal for me to be working at this place that I had always known and revered. Coming from a busy children’s hospital in residency, this was a whole other level, both in volume and complexity.

What surprised you most about the fellowship?

I was pleasantly surprised by the large numbers of rare pathologies and complexity of all the patients. It was my first exposure to a lot of rare diagnoses, and you would see five in a row in a single clinic. It was an adjustment to never see “normal” anymore, outside of trauma, of which there was plenty.

What was the greatest challenge in your year of fellowship?

I think my greatest challenge that year was trying to be everywhere at once since there was always so much going on. I wanted to do all the deformity, and all of the hips, and all of the tumors, but there was only one of me!

Did you get enough operative case load to be confident when you started practice?

Yes. Both elective cases and trauma was plentiful. I scrubbed into close to 300 cases over the year. Trauma was very busy, especially in the summer, and during ski season. I was also very fortunate to arrive at a time when there was a surge in deformity cases, so much so that I felt confident in not pursuing a full formal second fellowship in deformity after my year at SickKids.

How did you find the graduated responsibility of the SickKids fellowship?

This was perfect for me. I wanted a fellowship where I was still learning from the experts, but also given the opportunity to develop my own opinions and decision making. The SickKids fellowship offered a balance of this so I felt supported but not stifled, and had enough freedom to make my own decisions without feeling like I was just there to be a workhorse.

Do you have any memorable experiences that you would like to share?

Too many to list them all, but few: I knew this was the place for me when Sevan Hopyan looked across the table at the interview dinner and said “hmm, your food looks quite good. Should we share?” so we split our meals. I worked with Simon Kelley to perform the first Precice Nail at SickKids, and only the second one done in Canada Going to Coldplay and U2 – with the Dome open!! – with some of my favorite people there.

Now that you are an established paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, what have turned out to be the most useful things you learned from your fellowship that you didn’t know when you started practice?

The Canadian system has its differences, both good and bad. I think I learned the value of prioritization and patience, that kids really are magical little healing machines and we probably need to intervene less than we do, and the difference having a good team makes. The most important thing I learned was who I needed on my team to build a successful program, and how to use those people to their maximum potential. I also learned the value of good mentors. Knowing that I can call them to ask for advice, celebrate a success, or cry about a failure has made me more confident as a surgeon and I think I do better by my patients because of it.

What advice would you have for a resident interested in paediatric orthopaedics looking at prospective fellowships? What should they look for in a program?

You have to find your “home.” It shouldn’t be about “the best” or the most well-known. It has to be the right fit for you so you can get the most out of it. You want to work with people who you genuinely get along with because they can be your lifelong friends, not just professional mentors. You also need to critically examine your strengths and weaknesses so you know what you want to get out of your fellowship and then make sure the program offers you those things. I also think it is important to train in a place where you get a variety of perspectives. This is abundant at SickKids from the faculty and their varied backgrounds, as well as from your co-fellows thanks to the strong international draw of the fellowship. I still seek out my co-fellows’ opinions on a frequent basis about cases, research, and life in general.

If you could sum up your fellowship experience in one sentence, what would it be?

The best year of my life.