Number of Positions: 4
Duration: 1 year clinical (August 1 to July 31)
Location: Vancouver General Hospital
Salary & Benefits: $100,000 + Benefits (if applicable)
Fellowship Directors: Dr. Scott Paquette & Dr. John Street
Fellowship Mentors: Dr. Tamir Ailon, Dr. Michael Bond, Dr. Raphaële Charest-Morin, Dr. Newton Cho, Dr. Charlotte Dandurand, Dr. Nicolas Dea, Dr. Charles Fisher, Dr. W. Brad Jacobs, Dr. William Chu Kwan, Dr. Brian Kwon
About:
Vancouver is a vibrant west coast city in British Columbia, Canada, known for its stunning natural beauty, cosmopolitan atmosphere, and diverse cultural heritage. Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is a quaternary referral center for a catchment population of more than 5 million. Annually, the VGH/UBC Spine Program treats more than 7500 outpatients and 1500 inpatients. Our large multidisciplinary inpatient medical care team includes intensivists, physiatrists, nurse practitioners, associate physicians and neurosurgical and orthopedic residents.
Goals of Fellowship:
The UBC Neurosurgical & Orthopaedic Spine Fellowship provides its fellows with a comprehensive and rigorous mentorship in the assessment and surgical treatment of spinal disorders from occiput to pelvis. The fellowship provides extensive exposure to surgical subspecialties, including complex trauma, spinal cord injury, adult spinal deformity, cervical and lumbar degenerative, primary and secondary oncology, intradural tumours and pain. Routinely used technologies will include navigation, MIS, endoscopy and robotics. The VGH Spine Service performs over 1000 operative procedures yearly, ranging from simple to complex and revision spinal pathologies.
Research Opportunities:
All fellows will be expected to lead at least one original research project and complete one peer-reviewed manuscript during their fellowship. Additional opportunities are available for those who are interested. Numerous opportunities exist through the Vancouver Spine Research Program with prospective and retrospective clinical studies in fields that include deformity, pain, trauma, SCI and QI. All fellows may participate in both prospective and retrospective studies through the Canadian Spine Outcomes Research Network (CSORN), a Canadian multi-center research collaborative that includes spine surgeons, epidemiologists, and other health services researchers. Basic science research opportunities are also available in bioengineering, biomechanics, and molecular biology laboratories.
Surgical Exposure:
- Percent of Fellowship devoted to Operative Care: 90%
- Non-Operative Care: 10%
- Research/Publication Expectation: Yes
Approximate Percentage of Exposure to the Spine by Region
- Lumbar: 50%
- Cervical: 30%
- Thoracic: 20%
Approximate Percentage of Fellowship Exposure to the Spine by Diagnostic Category:
- Degenerative: 50% *
- Trauma / Emergent: 30%
- Deformity: 30% *
- Tumor: 15%
* There is an overlap with degenerative and deformity
Didactic Program:
- Resident / Fellow Teaching – Weekly
- Fellow Lecture Series – Monthly
- Spine Case Conference – Weekly
- UBC Orthopedic Grand Rounds- Weekly, September through June
- Deformity Case Rounds – Monthly
- AO Spine Fellows Educational Program
Other Activities:
- Journal Club: Every 2 months
Last updated: May 2025