The Department accepts applications for the 2026/2027 academic year through the SF Match process (apply @ https://www.sfmatch.org/). Interviews will be in January by invitation only.  Meet current faculty at the Annual OTA meeting this October at our Orthopaedic Trauma Institute Fellows presentation.  

If you have any questions, please contact the program coordinator, Whitney Milyard. 
Email: Whitney.Milyard@ucsf.edu 
Phone: 628-206-4532

In accordance with Federal and State law and University policy, the University of California does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, health, or disability. UCSF does not use race, gender, sex, or other protected categories or proxies for protected categories in the selection process. For detailed information, please visit the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.

The UCSF Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship is designed to produce well-rounded leaders in orthopaedic trauma, with robust training across clinical, educational, and research domains.

The fellowship provides comprehensive, state-of-the-art training in the subspecialty field of musculoskeletal trauma through wide-ranging patient care, research, and education opportunities.  The combination of high-tech facilities and world-class faculty provides a solid framework to balance the development of clinical, instructional, and investigational abilities of our trauma fellows. The program is based at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the only Level I Trauma Center and safety net hospital for the City and County of San Francisco. The program draws from the patient populations of San Francisco (1.5 million) and the greater Bay Area (7.7 million).

The faculty includes 12 orthopaedic trauma fellowship-trained surgeons, most of whom have done a trauma and one other subspecialty fellowship, three hand, and three physical medicine and rehabilitation faculty. The facilities include four research laboratories (molecular biology, biomechanics, clinical research, and a cadaver facility for tissue-based research) directed by full-time PhD basic research and clinician-scientists. The fellows also have the unique opportunity to engage in International Orthopaedics through the Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology group at UCSF.

The clinical training is remarkable amongst orthpaedic trauma fellowships, with robust experience in multiple centers, including an academic public Level 1 trauma center, a community Level 2 hospital, and a major University Hospital. Fellows treat patients with complex acute and sub-acute axial and appendicular trauma and reconstructive management of non-unions, mal-unions, soft-tissue reconstructions/flaps, and infections. Their time is divided between North and South rotations with full-time UCSF faculty. The North rotation is centered at ZSFG, where fellows work within academic teams, with scheduled time working at UCSF Health System facilities (i.e., the Orthopaedic Institute on the vibrant Mission Bay campus, Mt. Zion Hospital, and Marin General Hospital). On the South rotation, fellows work directly with faculty at Washington Hospital, a level 2 community-based public facility without orthopaedic residents. These different settings, which provide experience in multiple treatment approaches, teaching and learning environments, faculty, implants, and facilities, represent a significant strength of the program.

The educational program is robust, with daily conferences that include resident and fellow-specific topics, allowing the fellow to be both a teacher and learner. The conferences include review of all trauma case pre- and post-operatively, didactics, journal club, cadaver-based surgical dissections, and extramural conferences. The fellowship has produced a highly successful group of surgeons, with approximately half entering academics and half joining non-academic groups.

Fellows are required to complete a research project suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.  An assigned faculty research mentor supports the fellows’ research interests for each fellow and academically by PhD scientists who direct the organization’s four laboratories: the Laboratory for Skeletal Regeneration (molecular biology), the Biomechanical Testing Facility (biomechanics), the Clinical Research Center (clinical research), and the Surgical Training Facility (procedure-based research).  Each facility is run by its own PhD director and is supported by extramural funding agencies, including NIH and DOD.   Collectively these labs provide a framework for “bench-to-bedside” investigations. 

These research labs are networked with other University affiliated laboratories and clinical investigators in the greater Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and throughout the University, which consistently ranks in the top three in the US in annual NIH funding. 

The in-house clinical research group includes 2 full-time clinical research staff, and the faculty is currently engaged in over 25 clinical research projects, including multiple multi-national/multi-center prospective clinical research trials, any of which the fellows can actively engage.  The site participated in the SPRINT and BESTT studies, and continues to be a core site for the Department of Defense funded Orthopaedic Extremity Trauma Research Program (OETRP) and Major Trauma Extremity Research Consortium (METRC), and an active member of the Orthopaedic Trauma Research and Southeast Fracture Consortiums. 

Additionally, the fellows are given the opportunity to participate in review articles and other projects, such as book chapters, throughout the year. Given the abundance of research areas available for study at the institution, most fellows exceed the minimum requirement, particularly those interested in academic careers.

The fellows are able to attend a variety of national and regional courses to supplement their fellowship curriculum. They are required to attend the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Annual Meeting, the OTA Fellows Course, and the San Francisco International Trauma Course. The AO supported fellow is required to attend an AO Course. They also have the option of choosing between two other course choices, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, AO Courses, or other specialty courses. Over the past several years, both fellows have chosen to attend an AO Course. Regional courses that the fellow attends includes the annual alumni meeting and visiting professor grand rounds (related to trauma topics).