Plastic Surgery Training: Trends in Hand Surgery Fellowship in the Setting of a Pandemic

Background: Given the diminishing presence of hand surgeons trained in plastic surgery, we evaluated the associated trends in annual hand meeting educational content and postgraduate job offerings, and analyzed the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on trainees in hand surgery. Methods: Hand meeting registration and educational content were analyzed over the past 10 years. Current hand surgery job offerings were evaluated for training requirements, and the annual rates of subspecialty certificate in surgery of the hand board certifications were compared across training backgrounds. Results: Top categories of annual meeting educational content were “bone/joint,” “other,” and “professional development.” A majority of American Society for Surgery of the Hand presidents had training backgrounds in orthopedics (55%), followed by plastics (23%) and general surgery (22%). The job offerings on the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and Association for Surgery of the Hand websites specified more training requirements in orthopedics than in plasti