I'm a clinical professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Univesrity of California Irvine subspecialized in the treatment of non-unions and malunions, primarily with Ilizarov's methods.

Presently, I'm a Deputy Editor of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research and a Consultant Reviewer for The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. I've also served as an Associated Editor for the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma and Advances in Orthopaedic Surgery.My first book, Complication of External Fixation: Causes, Prevention and Treatment (1981) went through three printings and might still be in press if the publisher, Charles C. Thomas, had remained in the medical book field. The core illustrations from that book are being transplanted into Browner, Jupiter, Levine and Trafton's Skeletal Trauma (4th Ed) so the material lives on.

I trained under Dr. Henry Mankin when he was at The Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York. After doing an infectious diseases fellowship at UC San Diego, I joined the Greater Long Beach Orthopaedic Group where I'm now the senior partner. Around the same time, I joined the staff at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital to help Dr. Vert Mooney at his problem fracture clinic. I soon started using external fixation to deal with non-unions, malunions and post-trauma osteomyelitis. When Rancho imploded in 1995, I transferred to UCI Irvine where I continue to treat post-trauma residuals.

In 1987, I was the first American to visit G.A. Ilizarov in Kurgan USSR and soon thereafter helped him with publications in the Western medical literature. A few years later, I modified Ilizarov's concepts by substituting threaded half-pins for his tensioned wires in certain locations, thereby reducing muscle impalement and concomitant pain. (My experience with Dr. Ilizarov is documented in our Academy's 75th anniversary products, "Moving Stories" and "Moving Pictures.")

I've been president of both The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons and the Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society. I've chaired the AAOS Committee on Exhibits and have served as a site reviewer for the RRC. I presently serve on the AAOS Committee on Ethics.

I've long been interested in medical ethics, professionalism, and related topics. Starting in 1999, I published a series of articles in CORR dealing with socioeconomic issues related to our profession. In "Orthopaedic Surgeons: Inheritors of Tradition," I wrote about how orthopaedics acquired fracture care from bonesetters and general surgeons and how, if we come to rely too heavily on others to deal with routine skeletal injuries, we may lose control of fracture care altogether.

In "The Evolution of Medical Technology: Lessons from the Burgess Shale" I investigated total knee replacement as an example of technologic evolution and showed how developer enthusiasm influences the promotion of potentially dangerous products, and what might be done about it. In "The Origin of Modern Medical Research" I reviewed the placebo's history in medical research and provided historical support for the value of blinded assessment in clinical trials. My latest article, "Surgeons and Shamans: The Placebo Value of Ritual" considers the influence of perioperative rituals on the healing process and offers suggestions about ethically employing sham interventions in orthopaedic surgery research.

I'm the son, the father, and the cousin of orthopaedic surgeons. My family has thus been involved in our profession since the mid-1930s. My father founded the New York Orthopaedic Society and was on the AAOS's first Board of Councilors. My daughter served on the Orthopaedic Surgery RRC of the ACGME as the resident representative.

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