An Applicant’s Residency Program Region May Influence Where They Complete Fellowship

The primary goal of this study was to determine if an applicant’s geographic region of residency was associated with where they matched for fellowship. San Francisco Match (SF Match) provided results regarding applicant data and match results from 2014–2018 for orthopaedic subspecialties except hand and shoulder and elbow. Residency programs were divided into five regions: (Northeast [NE], Southeast [SE], Midwest [MW], Southwest [SW] and West [W]). The MW region had the fewest number of fellowship positions per applicant (0.62), the W region had the most (1.7). Applicants from each region were significantly (p < 0.0001) more likely to complete fellowship in the same region where they completed residency, and there were significant (p < 0.05) differences between regions for specific subspecialties. There are imbalances in terms of the number of applicants and specific fellowship spots available in each region. This imbalance seems important considering the strong associations found between the region in which an applicant completes residency and fellowship. Level of Evidence: Level 3. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 30(1):030–035, 2021) Key words: fellowship, match, orthopaedic residency, orthopaedic match