Nader Nassif, M.D New Chief at Hoag Orthopedic Institute

Nader Nassif, M.D., former head of the sarcoma program at Irvine, California-based Hoag Orthopedic Institute (HOI), has been elected as the new Division Chief of Joint Replacement at that institution. HOI performs more joint replacements than any other facility in California.

“With overwhelming support from all of his peers, Hoag Orthopedic Institute would like to congratulate Dr. Nassif on his appointment as our Division Chief of Joint Replacement,” said Steven L. Barnett, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of HOI. “We are confident that Dr. Nassif will continue to uphold HOI’s standards as a national leader in orthopedic care.”

After earning his M.D. (with honors) from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Nassif entered the orthopedic residency training at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. After that, Dr. Nassif trained at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, where he focused on hip and knee replacement surgery and adult joint reconstruction. This was followed by training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in advanced joint reconstructive surgery, limb salvage surgery and the care of benign and malignant tumors of the soft tissue and bone.

In his new role as Division Chief for joint reconstruction at Hoag, Dr. Nassif told OTW that he is “Looking forward to continuing the excellent work that we have been doing as an organization in optimizing patient experience and maintaining excellent outcomes. Hoag Orthopedic Institute is the busiest joint replacement center on the West Coast, and I look forward to working with my fellow joint replacement surgeons to continue to innovate and improve our processes to provide nationally recognized quality care to our local community.”

In addition, Dr. Nassif highlighted his intent to “Work closely with our performance improvement team and our research and community outreach arms to provide our patients with the programs that will impact the entire community.”

One major focus, reducing opioid misuse.

Opioid stewardship will be a key initiative under Dr. Nassif leadership. “Our performance improvement team, led by Sopida Andronaco, RN, is developing an opioid stewardship program for our community that will contribute to decreasing the morbidity and mortality related to opioid misuse.”

“One year from now we hope to develop a Narcan distribution program for our patients and their families, caregivers and friends. We are also developing standardized pain management protocols based on research that was performed at Hoag Orthopedic Institute to limit the number of narcotic prescriptions given. In parallel, we are developing a program for those that may have opioid use disorder to safely undergo surgery while controlling their pain post-operatively and providing care coordination post-op.”

Education is the key to the future.

“Through our community education arm at Hoag Orthopedics, led by Vanessa Glotzbach, there are several initiatives where we continue to give back to our community. ‘Back to Play’ is a program that exposes local high school students to careers in healthcare. Through our joint replacement fellowship at Hoag Orthopedic institute, we are also committed to educating the next generation of surgeons who will move the field of joint replacement and orthopedics forward.”