This marks my tenth year as chair and my tenth entry in the Chairman’s Corner. I’ve been told that one of the commemorative milestones of a 10-year anniversary is tin or aluminum--materials that are strong, durable, and flexible--which seems to fit the job description for a chairman of an academic orthopaedic department! Over the past decade, our clinical subspecialties and basic science and clinical research have continued to grow. My current research focus is investigating the merits of double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery, and we have more than 20 studies either completed or underway.

Our exciting collaboration with the vertebrate paleontology curators at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and veterinarians at the Pittsburgh Zoo is moving forward as we study of the evolution and anatomy of the ACL of the knee. Interestingly, when Johnny, a 12-year-old mandrill monkey at the Pittsburgh Zoo, was grabbing and poking at his knee, the veterinarians asked me to see him. During the exploratory surgery I was able to determine that this furry patient, in addition to having a partial ACL tear, had an ACL with three bundles of tissue rather than the human bundle of two.

To further discuss the recent advances and future of anatomic double bundle ACL reconstruction, we hosted in February the Panther Global Summit 2008, with a faculty of internationally recognized pioneers in anatomic double-bundle surgery from North & South America, Europe, Japan, and South Africa. The three-day conference attracted more than 225 surgeons and health professionals from more than 25 countries.

Our clinical faculty expanded this year with addition of Drs. Susan Jordan, sports medicine; Brian Klatt, joint reconstruction; and Anton Plakseychuk, orthopaedic trauma. Drs. Guang Heng Li and Bo Zheng joined the Division of Musculoskeletal Research as research associates in the Stem Cell Research Center. Drs. Donald Ravasio, Jory Richman, and Mitchell Rothenberg, who are based at the newly acquired UPMC Mercy also joined our Department.

US News & World Report magazine currently ranks our Department as 12th in the nation in its annual Best Hospitals Survey; and a nationwide physician-led survey lists me and Drs. David Stone, Lawrence Crossett, Christopher Harner, Mark Rodosky, William Donaldson, as “Top Doctors” in the Pittsburgh area along with our clinical faculty members Drs. James Bradley, Joseph Imbriglia, and Robert Waltrip. Dr. James Kang was awarded the UPMC Chair in Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery, and Dr. Constance Chu the Albert B. Ferguson MD Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Chu also was selected as one of the three American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) Traveling Fellows and toured European sports medicine centers. Previous recipients from our department include me and Drs. Christopher Harner and Jon Sekiya.

Dr. Hans-Christoph Pape, chief of orthopaedic traumatology, received the prestigious Kappa Delta Award for clinical research, the highest honor from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and fondly referred to as the “Nobel Prize of orthopaedic research”. This is the fourth time in five years that Pitt Orthopaedics has captured a Kappa Delta Award. Previous winners were Drs. Constance Chu, Paul Robbins, and Johnny Huard. I am very proud to report that at the Annual AAOS Meeting in San Francisco, we received more awards than any other orthopaedic program. Dr. Joon Lee was awarded an OREF Research Grant, Dr. Andres Quintero Resident Clinician Scientist Training Grant, and Dr. Daniel Martin both the OREF/DePuy Orthopaedic Resident Educational Grant and the OREF/AAHKS/Zimmer Resident Clinician Scientist Training Grant in total joint arthroplasty. Dr. Robin West won this year’s AOSSM Sandy Kirkley Clinical Outcome Research Grant for her application entitled “Topical nitroglycerin in the treatment of patellar tendinitis: A randomized, controlled trial”. And speaking of accolades and awards, our former department chair, Dr. Albert B. Ferguson Jr., was recognized for a lifetime of achievements and received the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the society’s highest honor. He joins a distinguished list of past recipients including Drs. Jonas E. Salk and C. Everett Koop.

Dr. Scott Lephart, director of the UPMC Neuromuscular Research Laboratory, is heading a team to study ways to help U.S. Navy SEALs get more benefit from their physical training while reducing injuries in training and on combat operations. The Human Performance Research Laboratory, a 2,200-square-foot facility at the SEAL compound in Norfolk, Va, features state-of-the-art biomechanical and physiological instrumentation and techniques and is modeled after our world-class lab, where many of the nation’s top athletes have been coming since 1990 for performance-enhancing advice. The facility is first of its kind and combines the advances in sports medicine science with traditional excellence of the Navy’s most elite warriors. Dr. Lephart also heads the Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement Laboratory, which opened last May at Ft. Campbell Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division.

Over the past year, Dr. Vonda Wright, director of the PRIMA program, was quoted five times in the New York Times. The PRIMA program, Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes, features medical care, nutrition counseling, mental training, and physical therapy designed for master athletes with a focus on elements for elite athletes and also sedentary older individuals who want to become more active.

For the 2008-2009 academic year, our residency training program received 564 medical student applications, including 144 students who scored in the 99th percentile on the USMLE Step I Exam. Ninety-one applicants were members of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. We invited 106 students from top-ranked US medical schools for interviews, and eight outstanding medical students matched with our program. Of the eight, a record number of five are women. It has been widely recognized that gender equity has moved very slowly in orthopaedics, with women comprising only 3% of orthopaedic surgeons nationwide. I believe our program has made a strong statement for gender equity, and once again we recruited the best and brightest to Pitt Orthopaedics. Our incoming PGY1’s are graduates of Pitt, Harvard, Rutgers, Virginia, Iowa, Oklahoma, and UC Davis. We offer our congratulations and best wishes to our eight graduating residents. Drs. Hany Bedair, Michael Espiritu, Andrew Ho, Adam Shimer, Eric Kropf, Volker Musahl, Shane Seroyer, and Peter Siska have all been accepted into prestigious sports, spine, hand, total joints, and trauma fellowship programs around the country.

On the Pittsburgh sports scene, we’ve had plenty to cheer about over the past year. The Pitt men’s basketball team claimed the school’s second Big East Tournament championship and sent the Panthers into the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight year. The Pitt women’s team earned its second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and made it to the Sweet 16 for first time in school history. The Pitt Panthers football team has been ranked in the top 25 nationwide and is ready to kick off a winning season under the direction of head football coach, Dave Wannstedt. Even though the Steelers didn’t make it to the Super Bowl, the super-talented Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team has captivated the City; and, in 2009, the Pens will skate in a brand new state-of-the-art $290 million arena. The City of Pittsburgh has always been and continues to be a great sports town. In April, the 72nd Annual Dapper Dan Dinner, which raises money for the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania, brought together over 1,000 Pittsburgh sports figures and fans for a very special evening. Mario Lemieux was honored as Pittsburgh’s sports single-most stellar athlete; and Sidney Crosby, the Penguins record-setting captain, was named the Sportsman of the Year for the second year in a row. Jeannette High School’s two-sport phenom, Terrelle Pryor, received the 2007 Parade magazine football player-of-the-year award and was also named to the Parade All-American high school basketball team.

On a personal note I can happily report that after having blown two discs from my neck last summer I was able to get back to seeing patients in five days thanks to the surgical expertise of Drs. James Kang and Bill Donaldson. In addition to my clinical, research, and administrative duties this year, I assumed the presidency of the AOSSM and will become president of the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery & Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS) in 2009. Last fall, I humbly received the Jerome Bettis Bus Stops Here Foundation’s Humanitarian Award for community service and was named an honorary member of Chilean Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology and the Spanish Arthroscopy Association. This spring, the Heinz History Center honored me, Drs. Albert B. Ferguson, and Anthony M. DiGioia and welcomed back 76 of its other History Makers at the Pittsburgh 250 History Makers Gala celebrating the city’s 250th birthday. Each year the Heinz History Center hosts the History Makers Award Dinner, an event which began in 1992 to honor people who have made a contribution of historic significance to the culture and community of western Pennsylvania and embody the best that Pittsburgh has to offer. While celebrating the past, the History Makers Gala focuses on the future of a city that continues to reinvent itself. And in December, my daughter, Joyce, was married; and my son, Gordon, will marry in August. So, in less than a year, our family will increase in size with addition of a new son- and daughter-in-law.

Year 10 has been a fantastic year for me, my family, and Pitt Orthopaedics. Next year our department will celebrate 100 years of excellence as we mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery by Dr. David Silver (1909-1940). Dr. Paul B. Steele (1940-1953) succeeded Dr. Silver as chair followed by Dr. Albert B. Ferguson, Jr. (1953-1986). Dr. Ferguson headed the department for 34 years followed by Dr. James H. Herndon (1988-1998). In 1998 I became only the fifth chair in a span covering 10 decades. Pitt Orthopaedics is one of the oldest orthopaedic practices in the United States. Although much has changed over the past 100 years, our tradition of quality patient care, teaching, and innovative research remains the same. I’m eagerly looking forward to my 11th year as chair and the second century of Pitt Orthopaedics.