Wound Fellowship

The profession of podiatric medicine is the only independent practice profession that dedicates itself to the foot and ankle. The ever-increasing body of medical knowledge necessitates the development of fellowships to facilitate the ability of highly trained professionals to continue the search for innovative and improved methods to prevent disease, promote health, and more effectively manage foot and ankle pathology.

The UT Southwestern Wound Fellowship Program’s primary goal is to prepare individuals for an academic career in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of foot and ankle wounds and to train physicians to become successful competent wound specialists. This derives its strength and direction from scholarly collaboration between faculty and fellows.

As a fellow, you will have regular access to faculty without the need for individual rotations. This allows for a more representative, diverse experience as well as the ability to participate in the full course of patient care from initial assessment to treatment plan, surgery, rehabilitation, and return to day-to-day activities.

The Wound Fellowship is an educational program that provides advanced knowledge, experience, and training in advanced wound care.

Fellowships, by nature of their specific content concentration, seek to add to the body of knowledge through research and other collaborative scholarly activities. The curriculum is designed to give fellows gradually increasing autonomy throughout the academic year.

The year will begin working one-on-one with the attending staff. As the year progresses, fellows will develop their own patient base for which they will be responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and return to sport of their patients. Fellows work under the direct supervision of the attending staff with progression of autonomy based on the ability of the individual as determined by the continuous evaluation of the attending staff.

Opportunities for Research

Though the primary focus of the training is the advancement of clinical and operative skills, each fellow will be expected to participate in clinical orthopaedic research. There are multiple research opportunities available including access to full-time research staff. A weekly research meeting will be held to follow the progress of all ongoing research projects. Each fellow will be required to complete at least one project during the year and prepare a manuscript suitable for publication.

Goals and Objectives

The overall goal of the Wound Fellowship Program is to provide a highly educational environment in which fellows learn to provide the highest quality of patient care. A successful wound specialist must be trained to conduct research, both clinical and basic science. Such training allows a greater appreciation and understanding of published research and greatly enhances one’s ability to determine whether a literature report has merit. This will include a caring, professional attitude toward patients, accurate diagnoses, and evidence-based treatment of the highest technical quality.

It is of the utmost importance to the Fellowship Director and the faculty that the fellows do not feel that they are here to increase the productivity of the group. The practice currently functions quite well without fellows and the motivation for the Wound Care Fellowship Program is simply the desire to help train future surgeons.