Dr. Dan Spengler welcomed the traveling fellows this week at Vanderbilt. (photo by Dana Johnson)
North American traveling fellows visit Vanderbilt
The North American Traveling Fellows (NATF) visited Vanderbilt’s department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation this week to present talks and visit with the faculty and residents. The fellows also held a panel discussing educational issues.
Established in 1970, the original goal of the fellowship was to select five or six young orthopaedic surgeons who had just completed their resident training and would be interested in traveling to orthopaedic centers in the United States and Canada over a period of five or six weeks.
“We are honored to have this prestigious group of young orthopaedic surgeons visit our department at Vanderbilt,” said professor and chair of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Dr. Dan M. Spengler. “All programs in the United States would love to have them visit.”
Today, the NATF remains one of the most prominent of traveling fellowships in orthopaedics and serves to identify the future leaders of the specialty. Since 1970, there have been more than 150 fellows.
“We are impressed with their accomplishments and welcome them to Vanderbilt,” said Spengler.
The five fellows who visited Vanderbilt this week were Peter Cole, the University of Mississippi Medical Center; Steven Frick, Carolinas Medical Center; Khaled Saleh, the University of Minnesota; Dave Sanders, London, Ontario; and Alex Shin, Naval Medical Center, San Diego.