When attendees of the American Association for Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) 2022 Annual Meeting got together recently, they were treated to a fun event that raised money for a great cause and put a young orthopedic surgeon in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Speedy Surgeon Enters Guinness Book of World Records
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Alisina Shahi, M.D., Ph.D. from Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey, assembled all 30 bones of the human leg in 78 seconds—surpassing 112 other challengers.
The event, sponsored by OrthAlign Inc., was set up such that the company donated $25 per attempt to Operation Walk, a volunteer medical humanitarian organization that provides joint replacement surgeries at no cost for those in need in the U.S. and around the world.
“No bones about it—we had a lot of fun with this competition, and we were able to donate a total of $5,000 to a great cause,” said Eric Timko, chairman and CEO of OrthAlign, Inc.
Dr. Shahi received a ceremonial plaque from the official Guinness Book of World Records judge to acknowledge his accomplishment and place in history.
When OTW asked Dr. Shahi about his secret, he noted, “Practice. I came back to the booth a few times to make attempts, learning from each attempt and clearly examining the bones. I took time to go back and check that all the bones were in the correct spot during the final attempt.”
As for speed informing one’s medical practice, Dr. Shahi told OTW, “I don’t think speed necessarily impacts one’s medical practice, but the patience it took to examine the differences between each bone is a skill I use in the field.”
And what led the company to sponsor this?
“This partnership was born on shared missions, said Eric Timko to OTW. “At OrthAlign, we believe that everyone deserves exceptional healthcare and we saw this as an opportunity to drive awareness for our simple and efficient Lantern platform. A record-setting, educational competition was a great way to engage the AAHKS members and community. We are committed to making empowering technologies accessible to all, so supporting Operation Walk, an organization that provides life changing joint replacements at no cost and made every attempt a success! As for next year, well, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
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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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