AAOS Honors Trio for Diversity Efforts, Leadership and Humanitarian Work

One is considered a pioneer. Another is deemed “an inspiration.” And a third embraces “an incredible desire to serve.”

All three — members of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) — were honored last week during the organization’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., for their service to the medical community and their profession. The recipients accepted their awards during the Academy’s ceremonial meeting on March 3, shortly before Gerald R. Willliams Jr., M.D., assumed the presidency.

Diversity Award

The Diversity Award recognizes members of the Academy who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding commitment to making orthopedics more representative of, and accessible to, diverse patient populations.

The Academy presented the 2016 Diversity Award to orthopedic surgeon E. Anthony Rankin, M.D., of Washington, D.C.

Rankin trained more than 120 minority and female residents as chief of orthopedic surgery at Providence Hospital and professor of orthopedic surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Many of those students returned to underserved communities to practice. He joined the Howard University Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1973, at the time one of only three minority-based orthopaedic programs in the United States, with the expressed goal of training more minority orthopaedic surgeons and serving as a mentor and role model to medical students.

Throughout his career Rankin championed several initiatives using diversity as a lens, including Culturally Competent Care, which brings cultural awareness into every patient-physician interaction in an effort to enhance outcomes. He also played a key role in establishing the AAOS Leadership Fellows Program and the Academy’s first committee on diversity, two specific examples instrumental in recruiting highly qualified female and minority orthopaedic surgeons to positions of leadership.

“Dr. Rankin’s promotion of diversity in orthopaedics has been a career-long mission,” said Augustus A. White, III, M.D., Ph.D., Ellen and Melvin Gordon Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of medical education at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. “Part of his motivation came upon attending his first AAOS meeting in 1967 and learning that there were less than 10 board certified African American orthopaedic surgeons in the United States at the time.”

“Removing obstacles and the unintended barriers for women and minorities to become orthopaedic surgeons has been part of Dr. Rankin as a person in his community and on the national stage,” said Douglas W. Jackson, M.D. “He has rolled up his sleeves and worked hands-on while personally teaching and lecturing on the importance of every aspect of culturally competent health care.”

Rankin currently serves as chief of orthopedics at Providence Hospital and clinical professor of orthopaedic surgery at Howard University College of Medicine, both in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he is a clinical associate professor at Georgetown University. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., and a medical degree at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He completed an internship at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., a general surgery residency at the Dewitt Army Hospital in Fort Belvoir, Va., and an orthopedic surgery residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He also completed postgraduate training at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., and at the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, Ill.

“I am grateful for the leadership roles I have held at AAOS which allowed me to promote the inclusion of minorities and women in orthopaedic education and patient care,” said Dr. Rankin, who became the first African American president of the Academy in 2008. “Through the Diversity Advisory Board and other resources, the Academy continues its efforts to improve accessibility for underserved populations.”

Humanitarian Award

This award recognizes living fellows, international, and emeritus members of the Academy who have distinguished themselves through outstanding musculoskeletal-related humanitarian activities in the United States or abroad.

Richard A. Gosselin, M.D., of El Granada, Calif., received the Academy’s 2016 Humanitarian Award.

Gosselin has spent his career performing selfless acts focused primarily outside of the country. He “has answered the call where very few of us would ever dare go,” R. Richard Coughlin, M.D., said of his colleague and Institute for Global Orthopedics and Traumatology partner, “including Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Haiti, Sierra Leon and Somalia.”

After finishing residency in 1984, Gosselin spent a year in Senegal, and six months each in Paris, France, and San Francisco, Calif. By 1991, he knew he wanted to devote his professional life to the care of patients in lower and middle income countries. Gosselin spent the next eight years in vigorous patient care in Florida until he retired from clinical activities to focus on full-time humanitarian work as an orthopedic surgeon and as a public health consultant.

“His service to the world’s needy patients—both children and adults—is by itself remarkable in breadth, depth, and volume,” said Peter G. Trafton, M.D. “However, Dr. Gosselin recognized that he could be even more effective if he combined this with teaching and with rigorous health care research.”

Gosselin obtained a Master’s degree in Public Health from University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s degree in Science in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. As co-director of the Institute for Global Orthopaedics & Traumatology (IGOT), he spends six to eight months each year with various non-governmental organizations, and mentors students, residents and fellows who have a special interest in global health and surgery.

Gosselin dedicated the last 15 years to activities aimed at improving the delivery of orthopedic surgical services in more than 40 low and middle-income countries, and performs an average of 200 orthopedic procedures himself each year. His efforts also include direct patient care, teaching and training both in the field and at home, research, and advocating for improved orthopedic surgical care globally. His classrooms included war zones and other dangerous environments, including disaster relief missions and at the earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan. It is at these sites he’s performed a variety of surgical procedures beyond orthopaedics in order to save lives and reduce disability.

“Dr. Gosselin has produced some of the most seminal published research and chapters in advocacy of surgery as an integral component of public health endeavors,” said Coughlin. “His chapter in the second edition of Disease Control Priorities for Developing Countries has been a wake-up call to bring surgery into the conversation for the WHO and World Bank. Dr. Gosselin demonstrates the unparalleled courage, dedication, intellectual integrity, academic brilliance and ultimately, compassion and caring for the world’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.” 

 

Leadership Award

The Tipton Leadership Award recognizes Academy members who have demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities that have benefitted the orthopaedic community, patients, and/or the American public. The award honors and celebrates the life, accomplishments and qualities of the late William W. Tipton, Jr., M.D., an orthopedic surgeon, educator and former AAOS chief executive.

The Academy presented the 2016 William W. Tipton, Jr., M.D., Leadership Award to S. Terry Canale, M.D., of Memphis, Tenn.

Canale’s greatest accomplishments have come from his leadership for programs that he personally championed and implemented. Among these are the establishment of the Leadership Fellows Program in 2001; the AAOS “Sign your Site” Patient Safety Program; editor of AAOS Now; and as a leader and negotiator of the AAOS and OREF partnership.

Canale is a career-long faculty member, leader, and mentor. He has held numerous teaching, research, and mentoring roles as a committee member and chair within AAOS and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA), including the Council on Musculoskeletal Specialty Societies (COMSS) chair and AAOS board member and president. He has also served as president of POSNA.

“It is an honor to receive an award named after Dr. Tipton, who made countless contributions to the advancement of orthopaedic care,” said Canale. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in so many AAOS leadership roles which have allowed me to help carry on his legacy of orthopaedic education and innovation.”

As a specialty society leader, Canale instituted the development of a center for surgical skills education. He was visionary in recognizing that the establishment of an Orthopaedic Learning Center would allow surgeons to safely learn and adopt new surgical skills.

“Terry has been a leader in every stage of his career and in every organization that has been fortunate enough to have him as an involved member,” said James H. Beaty, M.D., of the Campbell Clinic.

As a past president of AAOS, he designed and implemented an innovative Communications Skills Mentoring Program, an education program designed to help orthopedic surgeons better communicate and interact with patients. He committed to this effort as a priority for his AAOS presidency, and through his leadership, dedicated organizational resources to initiate communications skills workshops for residents and AAOS members.

Currently the editor emeritus of AAOS Now, Canale was the publication’s editor from its inception in 2007. He created a vital newspaper, offering updates on the latest in orthopedic science, including medico-legal, advocacy, and practice management pieces. AAOS Now jumped from being the seventh most-read orthopedic news source in 2009 to being the most-read nonclinical orthopedic publication in 2015.

“His leadership at every level of his career in every organization and in such variety of activities at the national, international, regional, and local levels makes him a role model in leadership,” said John J. Callaghan, M.D., of the University of Iowa. “Bill Tipton also recognized the importance of connecting private practice and academics and no one could embody that more than Dr. Canale.”