Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery Fellowship Outline
Introduction
The goal of our Hand Fellowship Program is to train each Fellow in all aspects of hand surgery. The applicant must have completed an approved residency in orthopedic or plastic surgery.
The purpose is to help the Fellow develop an understanding of surgical and medical management of musculoskeletal problems of the entire upper extremity. The program consists of a didactic lecture series, as well as clinical evaluations and surgical experience in the treatment of hand and upper extremity problems.
The program is structured so that the Fellow works closely with one or two attendees at a time. There are five full-time hand surgeons within the department and five physicians in private practice, all of whom are involved in the educational process.
The Fellow will also be able to participate in clinical and basic science research projects at the Institute of Human Performance. The program provides a mix of basic hand surgery and complex hand surgery conditions.
While the program has an emphasis on hand surgery, one attendee has completed an additional fellowship in elbow/shoulder surgery. The attending surgeons come from both orthopedic and plastic surgical backgrounds. As a result, there is an excellent balance of both bone and soft-tissue problems about the hand/wrist, with a generous free-tissue transfer/microsurgery experience.
This fellowship is ACGME accredited and participates in the match program. To learn more, view the information below:
Our fellowship program has a long-standing tradition of successfully training hand and upper extremity surgeons. It was founded in 1990 by Drs. John Mosher, Andrew Palmer, and Walter Short. Each of these surgeons were highly respected academic hand surgeons, and the latter two were highly published leading experts in wrist ligamentous anatomy and biomechanics.
Over the first decade since the fellowship’s inception, Drs. Jon Loftus and Brian Harley joined the division and continued the tradition of clinical and research excellence while bringing more expertise and case volume in soft tissue reconstruction, trauma reconstruction, and congenital hand surgery. In the second decade, Dr. Kevin Setter joined the fellowship program, as Dr. Palmer and Mosher retired, and expanded the fellowship to include clinical expertise in the entire upper extremity including shoulder and elbow.
Clinical Activities
The fellowship is principally a clinical fellowship with some limited research and teaching responsibilities. Educational activities include hands-on experiences in clinical and surgical settings – both inpatient and outpatient. These experiences are designed to develop the physician's knowledge of non-operative and surgical techniques for treating diseases of the entire upper extremity. It is our firm belief that graduated clinical responsibility is important for the adept development of a hand surgeon.
During a typical week, three to four days are spent in the operating room with at least one and a half days spent in the offices. We feel that the office-based component of the fellowship is important for the development of outpatient care, as well as to provide the fellow with an environment to learn surgical indications.
The educational experiences take place in two major settings:
- Upstate Bone and Joint Center
Enclosed within this space are the offices of the attending hand staff, outpatient clinics of the Orthopedic Department, radiography with an up-to-date MRI imaging facility, a hand therapy office, an outpatient surgery facility where 75% of the surgical cases are performed, and a pain management center for performing therapeutic and diagnostic block. - SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital, Crouse Hospital, Community Hospital
Inpatient surgery experiences as well as major traumatic conditions and replantation procedures are carried out predominantly at the SUNY Upstate Medical University, including the Community hospital campus. Upstate is a tertiary care level 1 trauma center with a pediatric hospital. This institution is capable of treating virtually all upper extremity and soft tissue reconstruction pathologies in adults and children, including traumatic, degenerative, and congenital pathology. The hand surgery service provides primary hand call at this facility. The Community hospital campus is utilized for short stay, inpatient, upper extremity procedures, such as elbow and shoulder arthroplasty. Crouse Hospital is a private hospital that is connected to Upstate Orthopedics Hospital by a bridge and is also covered by the hand surgery service for consultations and emergency care and some elective surgeries.
Compensation
The salary for hand fellows for fiscal year 2024 is $81,661. Fellows are covered by an institutional medical malpractice insurance policy. Health and hospital insurance is provided through Upstate Medical University.
- Thursday Morning Core Curriculum Conference
The hand surgery service hosts a weekly instructional session that is open to the entire Orthopaedic residency. These sessions occur each Thursday, beginning at 7:00AM. Sessions are topic-based as outlined by the core lecture. A PowerPoint lecture concerning the topic is given. The lectures are topical presentations that have been prepared by the attending staff and occasionally by the fellow. An open discussion forum follows the conclusion of the lecture.
- Monthly Morbidity and Mortality Conference
Throughout the month, all of the medical and surgical complications within the orthopedic surgery department are tracked. These are formally presented in a department-wide quality assurance conference. During this conference, complications, as well as techniques for their prevention, are reviewed.
- Bimonthly Hand Surgery Journal Club
Every other month, a journal club session will occur outside of the workplace. A series of interesting and current articles will be reviewed. These sessions are voluntary but provide the fellow and residents who attend a relaxed environment to review hand surgery topics and stay up to date on the current body of hand literature.
You can go through the Hand Fellowship Training Program Manual for further information.
Brian Harley, MD
Hand & Wrist Microsurgery, Elbow Surgery, Orthopedic Trauma-
Jon Loftus, MD
Hand & Wrist Microsurgery
-
Kevin Setter, MD
Hand & Wrist Microsurgery, Shoulder and Elbow
-
Kevin Albanese, MD
Hand and Wrist/Upper Extremity Surgery
-
Saeed Mohammad, MD
Hand and Wrist/Microsurgery, Upper Extremity Surgery
Brian Harley, MD 
Jon Loftus, MD 
Kevin Setter, MD 
Kevin Albanese, MD 
Saeed Mohammad, MD 
Yeshuwa Mayers, MD
Residency: Geisinger Medical Center
Yeshuwa Mayers, MDHand
- 2023 - Andrew Simon, MD - Cooper University Health Care, 1 Federal Street, Suite 200, Camden, NJ 08103
- 2022 - Ross Cole, MD - UBMD Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, 4225 Genesee St, Buffalo, NY 14225
- 2021 - Kenneth Mensch, MD - Ortho NorCal, 240 Dardanelli Ln, Suite 10, Los Gatos, CA 95032
- 2020 - David Cinats, MD - Virginia CommonWealth School of Medicine, 1201 E Marshall St #4-100, Richmond, VA 23298
- 2018 - Jessica Figueroa, MD - Potomac Valley Orthopedics, 3414 Olandwood Ct, Olney, MD 20832
- 2017 - Rosemary Yi, MD, Institute for Hand and Arm Surgery, 620 Essex Street, Suite 202, Harrison, NJ 07029
- 2016 - Sarah Shiga, MD, Ottawa Hospital, 501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, Canada ON K1H8L6
- 2015 - Laura Scordino, MD, OrthoNY, 121 Everett Road, Albany, NY 12205
- 2014 - Craig Dimitris, MD, Orthopedic ONE, 3777 Trueman Ct., Hilliard, OH 43026
- 2013 - Matthew Willsey, DO - Sheboygan, WI 53083
- 2012 - Steven Eddy, MD, Fort Wayne, IN 46814
- 2012 - Melissa Boyette, MD, Palmetto, FL 34221
- 2011 - Faruk Balkan, MD - TURKEY
- 2010 - Loren Potter, DO, Oshkosh, WI 54904
- 2009 - Hugo St-Amand, MD - CANADA
- 2009 - David Goren, MD, Beer-Sheva, ISRAEL 84306
- 2008 - Benjamin Berenfeld, MD, Harrison, NY 10528
- 2007 - Joel Klena, MD, Atawissa, PA 17820
- 2007 - David Patalino, MD, Slocum-Dickson Medical Group,1729 Burrstone Rd. New Hartford, NY 13413
- 2006 - Brandon Massey, MD, Massey Plastic and Hand Surgery, The Village Offices, 3170 N. Swan Rd., Tucson, AZ 85712
- 2006 - Amy Kells, MD, Jackson, MS 39202
- 2005 - Kevin Setter, MD, 6620 Fly Road, Suite 200, East Syracuse, NY 13057
- 2005 - Kevin J. Wright, MD, New York, NY 10010
- 2004 - Jessica Mattoli, MD, Cotuit, MA 02635
- 2004 - Jean Paul Brutus, MD, Outremont, Montreal H2V2H6
- 2003 - Amorn Neil Salyapongse, MD, Univ of WI, School of Med & Pub Health, 4th Flr, 1 S. Park St., Madison, WI 53715
- 2003 - Alexander Marcus, MD, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
- 2002 - Sunjay Berdia MD 9420 Key West Ave., Ste 300, Rockville, MD 20850
- 2002 - Gary Sherman MD, Hagerstown, MD 21742
- 2001 - Kydee Sheetz MD, Duluth Clinic, 400 East Third Street, Duluth, MN 55805
- 2001 - Brian Harley MD, 6620 Fly Rd., Ste. 200, E. Syracuse, NY 13057
- 2000 - S. David Boles, MD, Philpot, KY 42303
- 2000 - Catherine Spath, MD, Holyoke, MA 01040
- 1999 - Vincent Ruggiero, MD, Healthcare Associates in Medicine, 1099 Targee St., Staten Island, NY 10304
- 1999 - Stephen Dailey, MD, Camp Hill, PA 17011
- 1998 - Jeffrey Gelfand, MD, 456 Ritchie Hwy, Ste D., Severna Park, MD 21146
- 1998 - Evan Schumer, MD, 2000 Washington Street, Ste. 470, Newton, MA 02162
- 1997 - Arthur Rideout, M.D., Department of Plastic Surgery, General Hospital Corporation, 300 Prince Philip Drive, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3V6
- 1997 - Alfred Wroblewski, No current address available
- 1996 - Marco Dirks, M.D., Orthopedic Group, Inc., 588 Pawtucket Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02860
- 1995 - Jeffrey Arons, M.D., Woodbridge,CT 06525
- 1995 - David Toivonen, M.D., Hand to Shoulder Center of Wisconsin, Appleton Office, 2323 N. Casaloma Dr., Appleton, WI 54913
- 1994 - Patrick Harris, M.D, Laval, Quebec H7G 1E5
- 1993 - Scott Sagerman, MD, Arlington Heights, IL 60005-4411
- 1993 - Randy Hauck, M.D., Division of Plastic Surgery, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, P.O. Box 850 Hershey, PA 17033
- 1992 - Michel Benoit, M.D., Burlington, VT 05401
- 1992 - Jon Loftus, M.D., 6620 Fly Rd., Ste. 200, E. Syracuse, NY 13057
- 1991 - Steven Friedman M.D., Baltimore, MD 21209
- 1990 - Lawrence Halperin M.D., Orlando Orthopedic Center, 25 W. Crystal Lake St, Ste. 200, Orlando, FL 32806-4476
Affordability/Accessibility- Syracuse has a population of about 147K according to the US Census Bureau. The cost of living in Syracuse is relatively lower than the surrounding cities in the region. Not only is Syracuse affordable but it is easy to get from place to place. With many clinical sites being in downtown Syracuse, you are able to get there by walking or transit.
Eat and Play- In the mood for something quick to eat or a nice sit-down dinner? Downtown Syracuse is the place for that. With hundreds of restaurants and eateries, you’ll be sure to find exactly what you’re craving! Don’t miss the opportunity to visit Destiny USA and its many attractions, dining options, and amazing shopping experiences. You can also visit various State and County Parks in the area with many activities to choose from for all different ages.
Sports- The home of the Syracuse Orange! Named one of the Final Four best cities for college basketball. Syracuse University features 18 Division l men’s and women’s teams with the famous Carrier Dome as the largest structure of its kind on a college campus.
Looking to catch a baseball game? Head on over to the NBT Bank Stadium to watch the Syracuse Mets with Scooch, the team mascot.
The Syracuse Crunch knows how to keep it hot during the winter months! The professional ice hockey team has provided enjoyment at the Upstate Medical University Arena since 1994.
Location- Our location in Central New York has limitless multicultural experiences to offer. We are within 350 miles of many areas including New York City, Boston, Toronto, and Philadelphia. Take a day trip to some of your soon-to-be favorite locations such as the Adirondacks, one of the many great lakes, Canada, Niagara Falls, New York City, and many more.
Learn more about Syracuse:
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Want to learn more about the hand fellowship at Upstate Orthopedics in Syracuse, NY? Please call at (315) 464-6448 for any queries you may have about this program.
