Two New Members Added to AAOS Board of Directors

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons added two new members to its board today. 

Alexander Vaccaro, M.D., MBA, Ph.D., FAAOS, and Matthew P. Abdel, M.D., FAAOS, officially became bpard members.
 
Dr. Vaccaro is the president of Rothman Orthopaedic Institute and Chairman of Orthopedics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In these roles, Dr. Vaccaro oversees the clinical, educational, and research enterprises for both Rothman and Jefferson. A world-renowned spinal surgeon and educator, Dr. Vaccaro previously served as vice chair at Rothman Institute and vice chair of orthopaedics at Jefferson.
 
Dr. Vaccaro has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, co-edited textbooks, and received the Leon Wiltse Award for excellence in leadership and/or clinical research in spine care from the North American Spine Society, the largest international spine society in the world. He was ranked as one of the top-three cited authors in SPINE Journal from 1990 to 2009 and completed countless research studies presented at academic medical conferences across the globe. He is past president of the Association of Collaborative Spine Research and was the 17th elected President of the American Spinal Injury Association. Among other notable achievements is his election as the first full-time orthopaedic surgeon to be named co-chair of the editorial board of Journal of Neurosurgery Spine.
 
He is currently a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Medical Association, the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Society, the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society, the American College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Cervical Spine Research Society, the North American Spine Society, the American Orthopaedic Association, the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, the American College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Scoliosis Research Society, and the American Association of Neurologic Surgeons.
 
Dr. Vaccaro earned his bachelor of science degree, graduating summa cum laude, from Boston College. He continued his education at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., where he also graduated with honors. He completed his residency in orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson University and did a fellowship in spinal surgery at the University of California-San Diego. He then returned to Jefferson where he has remained and is now the Everett J. and Marian Gordon Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Professor of Neurosurgery. In 2007, Dr. Vaccaro completed his doctorate in spinal trauma and in 2015 earned his MBA at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
 
Abdel is serving AAOS in the capacity of a member-at-large under 45 years of age. Dr. Abdel is a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His clinical expertise is in primary total hip and knee procedures with an emphasis on revision procedures for the treatment of periprosthetic joint infections, periprosthetic fractures, arthrofibrosis (in the knee), osteolysis (disappearance of bone tissue), and complex reconstructions after oncologic resections. He is also the incoming Chair of the Division of Research for the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic.
 
Dr. Abdel earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Minneapolis, and his medical degree from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health in Madison, Wis. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic, followed by an adult hip and knee reconstruction fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Abdel is the principal investigator on an NIH R01 grant and has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers. Most recently, he received The Knee Society Mark B. Coventry 2019 Award and the AAHKS Lawrence D. Dorr 2019 Award.
 
As an AAOS member, Dr. Abdel serves on the Academy’s Adult Reconstruction ICL Committee. He is also an active member of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, The Knee Society, and the Orthopedic Research Society, among other professional organizations.