Funding of Educational Opportunities in Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Training

Abstract

As funding for graduate medical education continues to decline, finding sources of funding for orthopaedic resident education is a major issue for residency programs, health systems, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), and the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA). The majority of funding for orthopaedic residency programs in the United States includes federal funding from Medicare and Medicaid to the academic health center, funding from faculty and endowments, contributions from individual hospitals and institutions, and industry financial support of courses and the provision of other educational resources1-10. With the continued decrease in federal government funding for graduate medical education and the decrease in funding from industry secondary to concerns about conflicts of interest, many residency programs may need to evaluate other sources of funding to meet the educational needs of their residents. We conducted a survey of residency program directors and chairs to better understand the funding sources for their educational programs. In addition, we sought to define the role of industry funding in resident education. The AAOS staff and the AAOS Washington Health Policy Fellows designed a survey regarding funding for orthopaedic graduate medical education and the impact of industry support in funding graduate medical education activities (see Appendix). A web-based survey was developed and administered to orthopaedic residency program directors or chairs in the AAOS database. Questions were formatted and the data collection tool was developed by the Department of Research and Scientific Affairs of the AAOS to ensure proper survey format and to minimize response bias11-13. In August 2008, residency program directors or chairs were contacted to apprise them of the survey. One week after the announcement, the survey link was distributed to 149 residency program directors or chairs (one contact per residency program). Three reminder e-mails were subsequently …