Orthopedic Surgeons Select New Leaders

It’s the dawn of a new day at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Academy members installed a new set of officers (elected through online voting for the first time in the group’s 80-year history) during their annual meeting last week in Chicago, Ill., choosing clinician, educator and researcher Joshua J. Jacobs, M.D., as their president, Frederick M. Azar, M.D., as first vice president, and David D. Teuscher, M.D., as second vice president. The trio will serve one-year terms.

During their speeches to AAOS members, Azar and Jacobs emphasized the need for better unity and advocacy among surgeons. Both men used the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to mobilize the group’s 36,000 worldwide members into a formidable regulatory advocacy machine like the Advanced Medical Technology Association or Medical Device Manufacturers’ Association. Jacobs borrowed liberally from the intellects of English author Ernest Bramah, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, and U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt to rally the troops, using quotes from each dignitary to convince surgeons to help solve the nation’s healthcare crisis.

“The independent, entrepreneurial aspect of the American character is deeply embedded in our culture and also in our healthcare system. These characteristics, including ingenuity, pragmatism and fortitude, have contributed to our unique position in the world,” Jacobs told colleagues in his acceptance speech. “This is what…John F. Kennedy was referring to in his inaugural address when he said ‘I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.’ Can our country develop and adopt a new healthcare system that is high quality, efficient, accessible, and economically sustainable that could be a model to the world? I think we can.”

Kennedy was popular with Azar as well. The sports medicine specialist put his own spin on perhaps the most famous line of the president’s 1961 inaugural speech, challenging surgeons to “ask what your academy can do for you and ask what you can do for your academy.” He answered the latter question by encouraging members to support the AAOS through volunteerism, feedback, communication, and financial support. “It is quite evident that quality is intimately associated with our advocacy efforts. We have been investing substantial resources to quality initiatives, including patient safety,” Azar noted. “These quality initiatives need to be done, we need to be the ones doing them, and we need to develop them with valid methodologies because these quality activities will be directly linked to both delivery reform and to payment reform. The light is about to be shined on our performance and quality. Let’s be prepared.”

“So what can you do for your academy?” Azar asked the audience. “We need your support. Each of us has been gifted with certain strengths and each of us has certain interests that we can offer to our academy. These include your volunteerism, your financial support, or your feedback. We need a more consistent and sustained effort from the other three quarters of our members who are currently not engaged in these activities. Yes, I may be preaching to the choir today, so go home and engage your colleagues. This is a standing call to action.”

Jacobs issued a similar call to action, though his battle cry urged members to embrace healthcare reform rather than resist it. He advised surgeons to approach this “new era” by engaging in regulatory advocacy, developing quality tools to enhance such advocacy and strengthening the academy so it can help influence policy and shape the future of medical care.

“The academy needs to continually monitor our programs to make sure that they remain valuable to our members and that we have sufficient resources to support them. We need to partner with multiple stakeholders, including the payor community, to have the resources to support our quality programs, and we must support our political action committee to keep us strong and visible on Capitol Hill,” Jacobs argued. “To quote Winston Churchill: ‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. I am an optimist. Although we face many difficulties and challenges in the implementation of healthcare reform, we can meet these challenges. We have a golden opportunity to demonstrate the value we provide to society and to each and every citizen of our country. It is time to be part of the solution to the challenges we face.”

Jacobs is a board-certified and practicing adult reconstructive orthopaedic surgeon with an expertise in total joint replacement and a research interest in the biocompatibility of orthopedic biomaterials. He currently serves as the William A. Hark, M.D./Susanne G. Swift Professor and chairs the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He is a partner and executive committee member of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush—a private practice—and also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University’s McCormick Technological Institute.
A graduate of Northwestern University (with a bachelor of science in materials science and engineering), Jacobs earned a doctorate of medicine with honors from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and then completed an orthopedic surgery residency in the Combined Harvard Orthopedic Surgery program in Boston, Mass. Subsequently, he completed a fellowship in joint replacement surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago under the tutelage of Jorge Galante, M.D.

Jacobs led the AAOS Council on Research for six years. He is past president of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the United States Bone and Joint Decade. He also served as a trustee of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation and is past chairman of Committee F04 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices of the American Society for Testing and Materials International. Jacobs completed a four-year term on the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Advisory Council and has chaired multiple National Institutes of Health study sections.

Azar serves as chief of staff at the Campbell Clinic in Germantown, Tenn., as well as a professor and director of the sports medicine fellowship program at the University of Tennessee-Campbell Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He also was director of the department’s residency program for 10 years. Azar is a member of various national and international professional organizations, including the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the American Orthopaedic Association. Azar serves as team physician for the NBA Memphis Grizzlies, as well as the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University sports teams. He has volunteered with the academy for nearly 20 years and graduated from the inaugural AAOS Leadership Fellows Program in 2003. He served most recently as second vice president and academy treasurer.

Teuscher is a partner and past president of the Beaumont Bone & Joint Institute in Beaumont, Texas. He also serves as a team physician for Lamar University‘s NCAA athletic teams. After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio, Teuscher completed an internship and residency at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and completed 13 years of military service in 1993 as the chief of surgery at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. He has been in private practice with a specialty interest in sports medicine for 20 years. Teuscher most recently served on the AAOS Board of Directors and the Board of Councilors (as chairman, 2011-2012). A 2004 AAOS Leadership Fellow, Teuscher has lead and served on numerous academy project teams, committees and councils.

Other officers elected include Wilford Gibson, M.D., board of councilors chair; Steven Ross, M.D., board of specialties chair; Thomas Barber, M.D., council on advocacy chair; David J. Mansfield, M.D., board of councilors secretary; David A. Halsey, M.D., board of specialty societies secretary; Todd Milbrandt, M.D., and Joseph Bosco III, M.D., board of directors members-at-large.