USF Health and Florida Orthopaedic Institute (FOI) have join forces in order to develop an exceptional department of orthopedic surgery at the University of South Florida over the next decade.
USF Health, Florida Orthopaedic Institute Forge Alliance
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Going forward, FOI President Roy W. Sanders, M.D. will chair the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. David Leffers, M.D., the department’s chair since 2009, plans to step down from this post (but will continue as a full-time associate professor of orthopedics and sports medicine in the Morsani College of Medicine and team physician for the USF Bulls). Dr. Sanders will continue his executive leadership and clinical roles at FOI.
“Florida Orthopaedic Institute is one of the top orthopedic groups in the country—academically oriented, clinically excellent and highly respected for its innovative contributions to the field, ” said Charles J. Lockwood, M.D., senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, in the March 17, 2015 news release. “This new affiliation creates a perfect opportunity to build a nationally prominent USF Department of Orthopaedics with a partner already strongly associated with our primary teaching hospital, Tampa General Hospital, and our increasingly important academic and clinical partner, Florida Hospital.”
According to the news release, “…the new alliance will expand the array of outpatient sites available to aspiring orthopaedic surgeons for subspecialty training experiences. It will also offer USF medical and other health science students more opportunities for clinical experiences in orthopaedics and sports medicine.”
“The agreement allows FOI physicians obtaining USF voluntary or part-time faculty appointments to oversee and provide the clinical education and training of all USF orthopaedic residents and postgraduate fellows at Tampa General, Florida Hospital Tampa and Florida Hospital Carrollwood, as well as FOI’s ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient offices.”
Dr. Sanders told OTW, “I am honored to become Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at USF. In concert with the existing USF faculty and Florida Orthopaedic Institute’s attending staff, we hope to make this a partnership dedicated to teaching, education, and academic research. I am confident that this will benefit medical students, orthopaedic residents, fellows, patients, and our community alike.”
“My goal, after the initial integration, is to begin building our research division. With time, we hope our labs and scientists will participate in solving some of the basic problems confronting our patients, most obviously cartilage injury and the development of arthritis.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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