From Fellows to Ambassadors: The AHF Traveling Fellowship Experience
by Joe Schwab
Every year, the AHF Traveling Fellowship brings together a small group of early-career orthopedic surgeons and places them into something rare – a high-trust, high-intensity clinical immersion designed to refine their anterior hip arthroplasty technique, expand their perspective, and connect them with mentors and peers who are just as serious about getting better for their patients.
Over roughly two and a half weeks leading up to the AHF Annual Meeting, fellows travel across multiple institutions, step into real OR environments, observe advanced cases, exchange ideas with world-class surgeons, and see how different systems, teams, and workflows operate in real time. It isn’t a tour, it’s a working sprint, followed by meaningful reflection that helps turn what they’ve seen into changes they can bring back home.
An interview with some of our 2025 Traveling Fellows
In our latest two-part podcast conversation, we sat down with 2025 AHF Traveling Fellows, Jeremy Kubik, MD FRCSC, Qais Naziri, MD, MBA FAAOS, and Michael Field, together with host surgeon and fellowship director Alexander Sah, to talk about what the fellowship truly feels like from the inside and why they now encourage others to take the leap.
Across their stories, a few themes stand out for anyone considering applying for 2026:
1) The courage to pause your practice in order to improve it.
Each of the fellows had already begun developing their anterior approach practice, but they applied because they wanted to refine, question, and elevate their technique instead of plateauing. The fellowship gave them space to pause, step out of routine, and rethink how they operate for the next decade(s) of their careers.
2) The fellowship isn’t just exposure, it’s immersion (and reflection).
This isn’t cadaver lab learning.
It’s real cases. Real teams. Real systems. Real decision-making.
And just as importantly time afterward to compare notes, debate approaches, question assumptions, and translate what they saw into practice-changing insight. That reflection step is where growth becomes transferable.
3) The AHF is a community that celebrates you… and then asks you to carry the torch.
What struck me most was how often they returned to the same idea: they didn’t feel like visitors. They felt like family. Hosts picked them up, invited them in, and even missed them when they were gone. Hosts asked the fellows questions too.
And by the end, they weren’t just learning, but they were acting as conduits of knowledge between sites, and then coming back as ambassadors for the organization.
One line from our closing round captured it perfectly:
“Life-changing.” “Memorable.” “Extraordinary.”
Is The Time Right for YOU to Apply?
If you’re considering applying for the 2026 AHF Traveling Fellowship, these episodes offer a glimpse into what makes the experience transformative. The fellows describe how stepping away from their daily routine, even briefly, changed the way they think about their craft, their teams, and the future of their practice. Through real cases, real OR environments, and honest reflection with mentors and peers, the fellowship did more than sharpen technique. It expanded perspective and renewed their sense of purpose.
By the end of it, you do not feel like a visitor. You feel like part of something, carrying what you learned back home, staying connected, and growing into a stronger voice within the anterior hip community.
🎧 Part I: Expectations, preparation, and the early moments that shape how you see your practice
If you want to be part of that community, we’d also love to see you at the AHF 2026 Annual Meeting (June 5–6, Nashville); theme: Consensus and Controversy.
If you listen to the fellowship episodes, I’d love to hear your takeaway:
What’s one thing you’ve learned only by stepping away from your routine?
#AHFPodcast #AnteriorHipFoundation #Orthopaedics #HipArthroplasty #SurgeonDevelopment #Mentorship #LifelongLearning #TravelingFellowship
Don’t miss future episodes! Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever your favorite podcast platform is. Check out the AHF Video Podcast on YouTube.
