The Orthopaedic Training Study

The Orthopaedic Training Study, a joint enterprise of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Center for the Study of Medical Education of the University of Illinois, is now four years old. As a new phase is about to be undertaken, it seems fitting to describe to the medical profession at large what has been accomplished in this critical examination of one facet of graduate medical education, as well as what is proposed. In the interest of perspective, it is useful to begin with a reminder that the study was launched to explore a set of issues about efficiency in the use of limited manpower resources, issues which were serious in 1963 but have reached critical dimensions in 1968. The facts are simple. More man years are now devoted to postdoctoral than to predoctoral professional education in medicine. These years are under the control of specialty boards whose distinguished