Looking Back, New AAOS President Sets Course for the Future

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” — Winston Churchill

Daniel J. Berry, M.D., looked to the past for inspiration when preparing his first formal speech as president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). As he reviewed speeches from dozens of past academy presidents, Berry discovered they all contained consistent themes: Education. Unity. Advocacy. Ethics. Borrowing bits and pieces of the ideas he found in those speeches, Berry used those same themes Thursday to outline his vision for the 36,000-member organization.

“We will invest in education, but with an eye toward integrating all that new technology offers,” Berry told the hundreds of members that attended the ceremonial meeting inside a San Diego Convention Center ballroom. “We will invest in advocacy for our patients. We will invest in quality and research so we can do even more for our patients in the future. And we will invest in the infrastructure necessary to keep us the most forward-looking surgical specialty. We can and must accomplish a great deal over the coming several years.”

One of the more important tasks that Berry believes the organization must accomplish over the next several years includes optimizing quality and unity within both the AAOS and the industry as a whole. It is critical, he said, for the academy to invest in high quality basic and clinical research to improve the quality of guidelines; he urged members to embrace the process of determining the most effective treatments for patients. “When we find something that doesn’t work, we must have the courage to admit it, disseminate the information, and stop doing it,” he stressed. “Then, we should redouble efforts to find better treatments.”

Unity is just as important, Berry argued. Borrowing clichés from famed author Mark Twain (“It is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog.”) and the sports world (“We are far stronger as a team than as individual players.”), Berry reminded members that orthopedic surgeons have had an outsized voice in medicine despite comprising just under 3 percent of the total number of physicians. He attributed that strong voice to the profession’s organization, its ability to effectively treat patients, and perhaps most importantly, its unity.

“Unity requires constant maintenance, reassurance, compromise and actions that demonstrate we are set on working together,” Berry said. “Make no mistake—we cannot waver from this philosophy and we cannot waver from this effort.”

John R. Tongue, M.D., had a similar message for members in his remarks upon assuming the first vice presidency from Berry. He claimed the academy’s success is driven by three main characteristics: passion (about orthopedics), critical thinking, and teamwork. Using the theme “Give a little…Get a lot!” Tongue urged academy members to become citizen leaders to advocate on behalf of the AAOS and patients. “We must replace the locker room cathartic of constant complaints with timely, consistent communication of who we are and what we do. We need to stretch, to think non-operatively,” Tongue argued. “We need a new, refreshing wave of volunteerism—a redefinition of our responsibilities in society. Consider what personal contributions of time and treasure you will make this year to help move us forward. We can all ‘give a little’ and we’ll all get a lot—for our patients, and for our profession.”

Tongue has served for the past year as the academy’s second vice president. He also has served as the Board of Councilors chairman and previously has volunteered on various committees and task forces, including the Council on Education, the Committee on Public Education and the Council on Research.

A graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and the St. Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri, Tongue served as an intern and general surgery resident at the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland, Ore. He then completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the San Francisco Orthopaedic Residency Training Program. He completed a sports medicine fellowship at the Orthopaedic Fracture Clinic in Eugene, Ore., and a hand surgery fellowship at the University of California in San Francisco.

Currently, Tongue maintains his private practice in Tualatin, Ore., and also is a clinical associate professor at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Active in several professional societies, Tongue is a member of the American Orthopaedic Association, the Western Orthopaedic Association, and the Oregon Medical Association. He also has authored more than 80 publications, book chapters and presentations.

Active in the AAOS since 1998, Berry has served on numerous committees and task forces, including the American Joint Replacement Registry and the CME Courses Committee. He most recently served as vice president and second vice president of the Academy. He also held the position of president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) and held previous leadership roles for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, the Hip Society and the Mid America Orthopaedic Association.

A graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass., Berry completed orthopedic surgery residencies at Harvard, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston. He completed his fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He currently serves as professor of orthopaedics, College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic and chair in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Mayo Clinic.

An orthopaedic surgeon and researcher, Berry has received numerous honors and accolades including awards for clinical research from the Hip Society, the Knee Society, the AAHKS, and the Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation. He is the author or co-author of more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and 60 book chapters.

Berry’s first official duty as president was presenting his predecessor, John J. Callaghan, with the Past President’s Pin, Gavel and Silver Seal. He called Callaghan a “relentless advocate for orthopedic unity” and credited him with building a consensus when none existed. “He [Callaghan] made sure that as we tended to details, no one forgot about the bedrock of our principles as an organization,” Berry concluded.