“My greatest memory is the camaraderie and culture. The faculty, staff, and my co-fellow made coming to work every day a fun and enjoyable experience as we sought to help people with a variety of challenging injuries. I learned that if you know your anatomy and your principles, you can help patients with all types of problems. Regions prepared me to tackle the vast variety of injuries and problems you encounter in orthopaedic trauma. Over the course of the year, I got exposed to almost every approach and fixation technique which helped me build a wide toolbox. This combined with the graduated autonomy experience gave me a solid foundation heading into practice.”

– Albert George, 2020-2021

I can’t have 1 thing so these are my top 3: Reading soft tissues for when they are ready for surgery, the power of allgower-donati sutures and if youmake the x-rays pretty, the patients do well.
– Ryan Will, 2008-2009

The fellowship gave me confidence, independence, balanced exposure to a variety of orthopedic injuries and related problems. When starting my job I knew that I could figure out and learn everything. I was unstoppable.
– Evgeny Dyskin, 2015-2016

My greatest experience and memory includes the amazing team work that is Regions ortho trauma. One specific case of a poly-traumatized patient, in which myself and my trauma co-fellow were both in house at the time of the patients arrival really sticks out. We had the opportunity to work as a team in an emergent manner to help stabilize a patient with damage control orthopaedics. He had suffered a severe blast injury. Then, to be able to do the definitive management, and see him heal, recover, and return to his greatest joy- dirt biking, was phenomenal.
– Adam Breceda, 2018-2019

I would have to say the best part of the fellowship was working with the great team at Regions.  I had two fantastic co-fellows in Ross and Ryan that made the experience for me.  The faculty and staff were easy to work with.   I felt welcomed from day one.  

– Tim O’Connor, 2013-2014

Greatest experience – the opportunity to go to Pucallpa, Peru with Dr. Cole
– Ryan Will, 2008-2009

Fulfilling AO principles in not so standard ways to help patients heal from complex injuries or complications.
– Adam Breceda, 2018-2019

The fellowship helped prepare me for career in Orthopaedic trauma by allowing me to be curious and explore different parts of orthopaedics.
– Ryan Will, 2008-2009

Number one thing I learned was confidence. I had no doubt in myself after the fellowship.
– Evgeny Dyskin, 2015-2016

My best memory was waking up every morning and looking forward to coming to work. I knew that every day would be educational, professionally and personally fulfilling. I never had a single dull moment when at Regions, working with the greatest colleagues and mentors.
– Evgeny Dyskin, 2015-2016

I have a job (academic surgeon at OHSU, trauma section head for >10 years, and now interim Department chair for Orthopaedics at OHSU) where I work with so many different types of patients and so many different collaborators.  Dr Cole taught me to think collaboratively and to work collaboratively with all my partners and a wide variety of patients.  I listen better.  I am not scared to operate anywhere in the body and operate on difficult problems, problems that I have never seen before.  Some of these problems could scarcely be called “trauma” related.  But I am first a surgeon, and I first have the ability to help, even when problems are difficult.

– Darin Friess, 2005-2006

Greatest experience was just going to the operating room and learning, sometimes by the fire of needing to do things by myself, to become a better surgeon.  This culminated in the last week of the fellowship when nearly all the staff (Dr Cole, Levy, etc.) took a vacation.  They just put me on the call schedule and I operated like crazy for a week.  IT was the final exam.

– Darin Friess, 2005-2006

I worked with so many different surgeons and learned many different ways to skin a cat.  Some have worked for me, and some I figured my own way to do things.  I think the fellowship and particularly working with Dr Cole taught me to independently evaluate and ask questions about fractures and surgical techniques.  The fellowship taught me to train myself and to do hard and new things as I move through my career as a surgeon.  So now, nearly 15 years later I do many things very differently than Dr Cole taught me to do them, but he also taught me the lesson to do that and to evolve my technique as a surgeon. 

– Darin Friess, 2005-2006

Can’t say enough good things about my experience both the clinical experience I had and more importantly the relationships I developed over the year.
– Tony Pedri, 2018-2019

Hard to pick one.  A few, breakfast with Dr. Cole and the other fellows.  First solo call night with the residents.  Happy hour with the Regions family!

– Tony Pedri, 2018-2019

I would have to say the best part of the fellowship was working with the great team at Regions.  I had two fantastic co-fellows in Ross and Ryan that made the experience for me.  The faculty and staff were easy to work with.   I felt welcomed from day one.  

– Tim O’Connor, 2013-2014

Number one thing I learned is how critical having a cohesive team is to success.

– Tony Pedri, 2018-2019

The number one thing that I learned in fellowship is that many trauma cases are not straight forward.  They require creative thinking and sometimes finding unconventional solutions.  

– Tim O’Connor, 2013-2014

Couldn’t have asked for a better fellowship experience to get me ready for my first job. Case volume and variety provided phenomenal exposure to prepare me for anything that comes through the door now.  Graduated autonomy may be the biggest thing that helped.  It helped ease some of the growing pains that come when there isn’t an attending sitting in the corner any longer.

– Tony Pedri, 2018-2019

My fellowship at Regions prepared me for this job because I did not learn specific ways to approach specific problems, rather I learned concepts and principles that can be applied to a great variety of situations.  Throughout the year, I found that I learned how to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

-Tim O’Connor, 2013-2014

My fellowship at Regions prepared me for this job because I did not learn specific ways to approach specific problems, rather I learned concepts and principles that can be applied to a great variety of situations.  Throughout the year, I found that I learned how to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

-Tim O’Connor, 2013-2014

It gave me the confidence to tackle challenging cases, as well as taught me be innovative to take on new challenges.

– Jonathan Dubin, 2012-2013

I continue to draw strength from my Regions mentors, particularly Dr. Marston and Dr. Cole, to tackle cases that nobody else wants to take on. I’ve learned to look at challenging problems with eyes of courage instead of fear thanks to them.

– Jordan Barker, 2018-2019

This fellowship affords just the right balance of surgical independence and close mentorship, thus maximizing opportunity for learning and personal growth. By the end of fellowship I was completely comfortable taking independent call at a busy level 1 trauma center treating both adult and pediatric patients. This was an extremely satisfying transformation and left me 100% prepared to transition to my first job as an orthopedic trauma attending.

– Daniel Carlson, 2019-2020

It was an amazing bridge to independent practice. Learning great surgical skills, business skills, teaching residents and making outstanding network connections were phenomenal for preparing me for my current job. Even 4 years into practice, I still reach out for brainstorming on challenging cases to many of the attendings I worked with during fellowship. That ability to debrief with mentors is invaluable.

– Carmen Quatman, 2016-2017

I felt like I was at a huge advantage having figured out time management skills in clinic and how to work with medical assistants more effectively and efficiently prior to starting my job. 

– Megan Sorich, 2018-2019

I hit my level one trauma job ready to gobble up any complex case that came through the door.

– Austin Heare, 2017-2018

The personal care of Dr. Cole for his fellows. Playing on his softball team, or meeting at Brueggers Bagels, or going over to his house for dinner.

– Jonathan Dubin, 2012-2013

I have many great memories, including doing cases together with co-fellows, tackling tough cases and attending education opportunities. Perhaps some of my favorite memories are spending time outside the OR with attendings hearing their experiences and stories over the years, amazing experiences to gain insight about orthopaedic trauma experiences.

– Carmen Quatman, 2016-2017

The level of independence and confidence in taking call at a level one trauma center as well as running my own clinic helped prepare me for my current job; it helped prepare me for making critical and independent plans for my patients.

– Michael Milshteyn, 2017-2018

My greatest memory was how warm and welcoming everyone was from the minute I stepped through the door on day one. Gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about it!

– Austin Heare, 2017-2018

Dedication to teaching, research, and patient care.

– Jonathan Dubin, 2012-2013

The number one thing I learned was how to plan out and trouble shoot through difficult cases and complications.

– Michael Milshteyn 2017-2018

I learned to feel confident in my ability to perform challenging cases independently and the value of having great colleagues to discuss operative strategies for best outcomes.

– Carmen Quatman, 2016-2017

I learned so much that is hard to pin point one thing. I think the most important thing I learned or gained during my year was confidence. By learning a ton of different reduction techniques, retractor placement options, detailed things that I didn’t really pay attention to before greatly helped my surgical skill and then my confidence as a surgeon.

– Megan Sorich, 2018-2019

The number one thing I learned is to make the fixation “Bomb Proof!” 

– Austin Heare, 2017-2018

My greatest memories were the complicated cases that I scrubbed together with my co-fellow, Dr. Austin heare. We were in the first month and scrubbed together with Dr. Cole on an acetabulum fracture. He completed an ORIF of an acetabulum so quickly and efficiently, that both of us barely knew what had happened. he turned to us non-chalantly, thanked us for assisting him and left. Both Austin and I just stood still for a bit and looked at each other in astonishment at what had just happened.

– Michael Milshteyn 2017-2018

I loved the comradery with the other fellows. It was fun to double scrub cases and learn together. We still keep in touch weekly and Adam is my neighbor 3 doors down 🙂 

– Megan Sorich, 2018-2019