Jeffrey Sawyer, M.D. has just been elected the 39th president of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and will assume the duties of his new office in 2023.
Jeffrey Sawyer, M.D. New President of POSNA
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A board-certified, fellowship-trained pediatric spine surgeon, Dr. Sawyer has practiced with Memphis, Tennessee-based Campbell Clinic for 21 years. Over the years he has become one of the leading internationally known authorities on pediatric orthopedic trauma with a particular specialty in pediatric scoliosis.
Dr. Sawyer has authored over 125 peer-reviewed publications, 30 book chapters, 200 national and international presentations, and serves as a reviewer/editor for the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, American Journal of Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Clinics of North America and serves on the Board of the Pediatric Spine Foundation.
Dr. Sawyer joins the ranks of other notable Campbell Clinic orthopedic surgeons who have served as POSNA president including retired orthopedic surgeon Terry Canale, M.D. and current orthopedic surgeon James Beaty, M.D.
In addition to being POSNA’s newly minted president, Dr. Sawyer is also a board member of the Pediatric Spine Foundation and a member of the Scoliosis Research Society. He has served as a POSNA Traveling Fellow and won the POSNA Special Achievement Award for his work on the Pediatric Orthopaedic Workforce.
Dr. Sawyer graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and did his residency at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a Pediatric Orthopaedic Fellowship at the University of Tennessee-Campbell Clinic.
“Dr. Sawyer is more than deserving of this role,” says Dr. Frederick Azar, chief of staff for Campbell Clinic. “In this leadership position, he will be able to lend his tremendous talent, energy and creativity to POSNA and advance their work with excellence, as he has done for our practice and his patients at Campbell Clinic.”
Smart Growth, Education and Diversity
Dr. Sawyer told OTW, “Truly an honor to serve this organization that has been my professional home for over 20 years now and to follow in the tradition of Campbell Clinic POSNA Presidents, Dr. James Beaty and Dr. S. Terry Canale, my mentors.”
This first step when he takes the reins of PONSA, Dr. Sawyer told OTW, is to “Really build on the work of previous Presidents/Boards who gave us stability during the turmoil of COVID. My platform is ‘Lean and Mean’ which incorporates keeping the things that are working for us, getting rid of things that no longer work for us in the new post-COVID environment so that we can reduce complexity and create organizational bandwidth to take advantage of new opportunities that will come along.”
Dr. Sawyer continued, “My goal for this year is to continue POSNA’s smart growth in terms of membership, education and diversity for the next decade and beyond.”
Outside of pediatric orthopedics, Dr. Sawyer is just as active. In his free time, he stays busy with his wife and their three energetic sons. He also regularly competes in IRONMAN competitions and is an IRONMAN Bronze All-World Athlete.
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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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