PediOrtho WEST

Shriners Children’s Northern California Hosts the Annual PediOrtho WEST Resident Education Course for Orthopedic Surgery Residents

This dynamic course now in its ninth year is led by accomplished pediatric orthopedic surgery faculty from around the country. The course covers the full breadth and depth of pediatric orthopedics through modern learning techniques of case-based learning and hands-on skills labs. The target audience is PGY1 through PGY3 residents, but residents at all levels can benefit from the course.

Enrollment is limited to 30 residents in order to allow a faculty to resident ratio of nearly 1:2. Acceptance is on a first-come, first-served basis. If additional spots remain open, advanced practice providers and medical students may attend. Thanks to the generous support provided by the not-for-profit Amstrong Children’s Orthopaedic Alliance, the course, food and lodging are offered at no cost to participants. A travel stipend is also available to offset any travel costs.

Registration and the proposed agenda are available now.

The course is led by pediatric orthopedic surgeons from Shriners Children’s Northern California, UC Davis, UCSF Benioff Children’s, Stanford Lucile Packard Children’s, Valley Children’s and other top pediatric orthopedic hospitals from around the country.

PediOrtho WEST has attracted orthopedic surgery residents from the following programs since 2018:
Community Memorial Health System, Ventura, CA	University of California, Davis
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Portland, OR	University of California, Los Angeles
LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA	University of California, San Diego
Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA	University of California, San Francisco
Mountain View Regional Medical Center, Las Cruces, NM	University of Arizona, Tucson
Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR	University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Shriners Children’s Portland	University of Washington, Seattle
San Francisco Orthopedic Residency Program	Valley Children’s Hospital, Madera, CA
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA	Valley Orthopedic, Modesto, CA
St. Joseph Health, Stockton, CA	University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA	Cedars Sinai, Los Angeles, CA
Oklahoma State University	Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ

Program Directors

Vedant Kulkarni

Vedant A. Kulkarni, M.D.

Director of Orthopedic Education, Shriners Children's Northern California
Assistant Chief of Staff and Vice Chair of Orthopedic Surgery, Shriners Children’s Northern California
Program Director, Shriners-UC Davis Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Fellowship

Jon Davids

Jon R. Davids, M.D.

Emeritus Assistant Chief of Orthopedic Surgery, Shriners Children’s Northern California
Emeritus Professor Orthopedics, University of California Davis

PediOrtho West 2025

Shriners Children’s Northern California hosts the Annual PediOrtho WEST Resident Education Course for Orthopedic Surgery Residents This dynamic course is led by pediatric orthopedic surgeons from California’s leading children’s hospitals. Residents receive training in a variety of pediatric orthopedic surgical techniques through case-based learning and hands-on skills labs.

View Transcript

[Title Card: Shriners Children's Northern California logo]

Vedant Kulkarni, M.D., Shriners Children's Northern California:

My name is Dr. Vedant Kulkarni, and I'm a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Children's Northern California. I'd like to welcome you today to PediOrtho WEST. This course is designed for first through third year orthopedic surgery residents, advanced practice providers, as well as medical students. And our goal is simple, to inspire participants to be providers of musculoskeletal healthcare for children. The course has an ambitious goal to cover the full breadth and depth of pediatric orthopedics, and this is achieved through hands-on skills labs, covering the common surgeries we do, as well as case-based learning with faculty.

John R. Davids, M.D., Shriners Children's Northern California:

Hello. My name is Dr. John Davids. I'm a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Children's Northern California, and the orthopedic department at the University of California, Davis. This program is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from an organization called Armstrong Children's Orthopedic Alliance. The exposure that residents get to pediatric orthopedics may not be in the early part of their residency when they are actually making their own career choice decisions. So this course, by focusing on these more junior residents, gives them an earlier exposure than they might have to pediatric orthopedics, which, in some cases, will undoubtedly stimulate a career path for them.

Sara Kiani, UCSF:

What I'm learning here at PediOrtho WEST is both how to take that knowledge from the textbook, and turn it into actual practical hands-on surgical skills, and taking case examples and going really into the details on how we actually put these things into practice.

Kendrick Cuero, St. Joseph's Medical Center:

My name's Kendrick Cuero. I'm a second year orthopedic surgery resident out of St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton, California. My favorite part about today so far has probably been the small group discussions that we've had. We have a lot of faculty coming in from different parts of the state and the country, it's been really helpful to sort of have a lot of different pediatric principles come together in one focus day. It's been really helpful.

Caroline Eaton, Armstrong Children's Orthopedic Alliance:

Hi, my name is Caroline Eaton, and I'm executive director of the Armstrong Children's Orthopedic Alliance. And on behalf of the alliance, we would like to thank Shriners Children's Northern California for putting on this extraordinary education event. And we look forward to growing it together in the years to come.

[Title Card: Shriners Children's Northern California logo]

View Proposed Agenda

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