I first acknowledge the guidance of my parents, two business school graduates who emphasized opportunity, discipline, diligence, and resilience.
Medical practice planting and administration. My initial experience involved establishing a solo practice, followed by development of a specialty building across from the hospital Emergency Department. In Bloomington, Indiana, during a period of personal loss, I found key opportunities and mentoring in care delivery. By accepting each opportunity and applying broad training, I became the region’s busiest surgeon. I inherited proactive staff who contributed practical methods. A second practice planting after more than a decade in academia, alongside colleagues leaving the University, addressed emerging economic challenges. As volunteer vice chair of orthopedics at a community hospital, surgeon recruitment for call coverage proved difficult amid population growth, underprivileged patients, declining reimbursements, and redirected federal funding. Hospital instability continued with loss of OR access and referral shifts to hospital-based systems. Flexibility and availability to hospitals requiring broad surgical coverage have sustained my clinical practice into later career stages.
Bench research. Beginning in medical school and continuing through fellowship and postdoctoral orthopedic research, I conducted cell and animal studies, including grant management as U.S. funding declined. I collaborated with industry in product development and testing, including electrical tissue stimulation and first clinical wound use of recombinant peptide BMP-2.
Clinical research. Using early computerized clinical data, I documented long-term outcomes of shoulder injury in geriatric surgical patients. This work supported roles as orthopedic EHR liaison, quality officer, and leader of outcome and efficiency studies across multiple EHR platforms.
Mechanical analysis, implant design, and testing. My early faculty work addressed calcaneus central depression fractures and unstable intertroch/subtroch hip fractures. These were modeled, implants developed and tested, resulting in a patented calcaneus implant and hip implant advancements widely used today.
Wound biology and local modulation of healing. At UPenn, guided by leaders in orthopedic research, I earned an advanced degree based on original work on microvessel ingrowth in bone formation. Postdoctoral work expanded this to growth regulation, recombinant therapies, and extracellular matrix biology. Facing severe wounds with high infection rates, I led development of resorbable polysaccharide wound implants for environmental restoration and antibiotic delivery. These showed high efficacy in animal studies and, under IRB oversight, in clinical trials.
Current projects at OrthoAgile:
Anatomic Rotator Cuff Arthroplasty (ARCA): A patented anatomic shoulder replacement capable in rotator cuff deficiency, enabled by Patient Match technology and enhanced glenoid fixation. Prototypes confirm surgical feasibility. Regulatory guidance supports a 510(k) pathway, initially marketing a specialty baseplate for Reverse Shoulder Replacement with future expansion to full anatomic replacement.
Wound gel: A locally applied wound-care product encouraged by the U.S. Department of Defense for battlefield use. Open fractures remain disabling and costly for veterans.
Osteotomy device: A computer-guided, infinitely adjustable system enabling durable correction with early return to function.
Robot-guided knee replacement: An approach designed to reduce surgical trauma, infection, and arthrofibrosis, major contributors to unsatisfactory outcomes.