OrthoSCORER

Student Curriculum for Orthopedic Resident Education Readiness

A 4-week primer for medical students preparing for orthopedic sub-internships and residency applications. Free. Open enrollment. Start anytime.

ABOUT THE COURSE

OrthoSCORER is a structured four-week online curriculum that prepares medical students for the demands of an orthopedic sub-internship and the orthopedic residency application year. The course covers foundational orthopedic science, fractures and bone pathology, joints and sports medicine, and the practical realities of applying into orthopedic surgery — all in roughly 45 to 60 minutes a day, Monday through Friday.

The curriculum is built around evidence-based learning principles. Every day combines curated high-yield resources with short active-learning exercises, and content from earlier in the course is deliberately revisited later through spaced retrieval practice. A separate longitudinal radiograph-reading track runs through all twenty days, training students to read and present films in the same structured language they will be expected to use on rounds.

WHO IT'S FOR

OrthoSCORER is designed for medical students preparing orthopedic surgery rotations, particularly fourth-year students preparing sub-internship rotations at programs they are interested in for residency application. It is also useful for third-year students considering orthopedics who want a focused introduction to the field. No prior orthopedic experience is required.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

By the end of OrthoSCORER, students will be able to:

1. Apply foundational orthopedic principles — bone biology, biomechanics, soft tissue healing, regional anatomy, and a structured radiograph-reading framework — to clinical scenarios. (Week 1)

2. Classify and triage common adult and pediatric fractures, and construct appropriate frameworks for treating a range of orthopedic pathologies (Week 2)

3. Differentiate common joint and sports-medicine pathology across the upper and lower extremity, and understand the principles of arthroplasty and arthroscopy. (Week 3)

4. Build a personal residency-application strategy and present orthopedic patients in the structured language attendings expect on rounds. (Week 4)

Course Structure

The course runs four weeks, Monday through Friday, with a target time commitment of 45 to 60 minutes per day.

• Week 1 — OrthoBASICS: Foundational Sciences. Bone biology and remodeling, biomechanics fundamentals, soft tissue healing, regional musculoskeletal anatomy, and a structured framework for reading radiographs.

• Week 2 — OrthoBONES: Fractures and Bone Pathology. Fracture biology and classification systems, upper and lower extremity fractures, pediatric and physeal injuries, and bone pathology including osteoporosis, infection, and tumors.

• Week 3 — OrthoJOINTS: Joints, Sports, and Arthroplasty. Inflammatory and degenerative arthritis, shoulder and elbow, hip and knee, foot, ankle and spine, and the principles of joint replacement and sports medicine.

• Week 4 — OrthoCAREERS: Application and Sub-I Readiness. The orthopedic residency timeline, research and sub-internship strategy, away rotations and letters of recommendation, the application and personal statement, and interviews and rank list. Cumulative musculoskeletal review is built into each day.

HOW IT WORKS

Each day follows the same template: a brief retrieval warm-up that revisits earlier material, a single curated video ± curated reading materials, an active-learning exercise, and two to three radiographs to read in formal language. The retrieval warm-up draws from the prior day as well as content earlier in the course, which keeps every concept in active rotation across the full four weeks.

The radiograph track is longitudinal. Two to three new films appear every day for all twenty days. Each is presented as a stand-alone task: read the film and provide a formal radiographic interpretation. Reference reads follow each case.