How the Reputation of Orthopaedic Residency Programs Influences the Spine Surgery Fellowship Match Results

This study sought to evaluate recent orthopaedic spine fellowship match results as it relates to the reputation of the respective applicants’ residency programs. Applicant’s residency program, fellowship match, number of fellowship positions available per program, where each fellowship ranked each applicant, and where each applicant ranked each fellowship program were included. Residency programs were divided into five tiers using the 2018 Doximity orthopaedic residency reputation rankings. Applicants from tier-1 Doximity-ranked residency programs were more likely to be offered interviews, applied to fewer programs, and matched to their first or second ranked fellowship program much more frequently than applicants from all other tiers (p < 0.01). This study suggests that applicants can be more targeted in terms of choosing the number of interviews to attend, and fellowship programs can be more selective with interview strategy. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 34(1):090- 092, 2025)

Key words: fellowship match, orthopaedics, residency rankings, spine surgery, doximity