The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, founded in 1972, has 3,042 members. This July, the first female president of the organization Jo Hannafin, MD, assumed her one-year term. Dr. Hannafin is the director of orthopedic research and orthopedic director of the Women's Sports Medicine Center at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Dr. Hannafin shares her goals as the new AOSSM president, who has had an impact on her career and how her involvement with the society prepared her for her new leadership role.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish as president of AOSSM?
Dr. Jo Hannafin: The AOSSM is a strong and vibrant organization with significant growth in the membership over the past decade. My goal is to work with the membership, board of trustees and staff to strengthen our education and research programs and to increase involvement of the membership in the organization. As our time and options for CME become more limited, it is incumbent upon the AOSSM to provide high quality educational opportunities to the members via live, digital and print formats and to be responsive to their academic and intellectual needs.
Q: What originally attracted you to the fields of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine?
JH: I was a high school, collegiate and post-collegiate athlete who was attracted to orthopedics via involvement in sports medicine. I enjoyed the types of patients and procedures that I witnessed as a medical student. The patients were highly motivated and generally had orthopedic problems for which there was a successful solution.
Q: Thus far, who has had a significant influence on your career?
JH: I have had the fortune to have a number of outstanding mentors. Dr. Rolfe Kinne was my PhD thesis advisor and taught me experimental design and critical thinking skills that have stayed with me. Dr. I. Martin Levy at Einstein-Montefiore was first my surgeon (ACL, MCL, medial meniscus) and then became my mentor in medical school and residency. He absolutely loves what he does and that appreciation for the field was absolutely contagious.
I did a two year sports medicine fellowship at HSS and spent one year in the Laboratory for Comparative Orthopaedic Research with Dr. Steven Arnoczky followed by a clinical year with Drs. Russell Warren, Thomas Wickiewicz, Stephen O'Brien and David Altchek who provided me with opportunities in the clinic, OR and with a variety of collegiate and professional sports teams. Drs. Warren, Wickiewicz and Arnoczky have provided tremendous guidance and support to me over the last 20 years and all have significantly influenced my career path.
Q: How has your previous involvement with AOSSM prepared you for your position as president?
JH: My personal involvement with the AOSSM has grown steadily since 1997 through involvement in AOSSM committees, Instructional Course lectures, journal review for the AJSM and presentations at Specialty Day and the annual meeting. I made a decision early in my career to be involved in only one specialty society so that I might volunteer and contribute in a more meaningful way. Over the years I have met many extraordinary people who donate their time and expertise to the AOSSM and have learned a lot from them as well as the AOSSM professional staff and Executive Director, Irv Bomberger. It is a tremendous organization!
Q: Has your personal experience with sports influenced the way you work with athletes and patients?
JH: My personal involvement with sports has shaped my personality and my work ethic, which is reflected in my interactions with patients. I am also the wife of an athlete and the mother of three athletes, so I understand how disruptive an injury can be to an athlete's life. My goal is to educate them about the injury and available treatment options, to help them recover from the surgical or non-surgical treatment of their injury and to return them successfully to their life and their sport.
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