From new augmented reality options to pediatric specialist appointments, here are 16 orthopedic, spine and sports medicine care moves impacting pediatric patients this year:
1. Scott Luhmann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, completed the first pediatric deformity case with the VisAR augmented reality system.
2. Orthopedic developer OrthoPediatrics partnered with Washington, D.C.-based Children's National Hospital to improve development and commercialization of pediatric medical devices.
3. The Herbert J. Louis Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Phoenix Children's added Maegen Wallace, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and osteogenesis imperfecta expert, to its orthopedic surgery staff.
4. Lawrence Rinsky, MD, a pediatric orthopedic specialist, retired from a decadeslong orthopedic career at Stanford (Calif.) Medicine Children's Health.
5. The Lerner Children's Pavilion at the New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery expanded and renamed its Adaptive Sports Academy, which focuses on promoting confidence, encouraging independence, reinforcing therapy goals and increasing physical activity, creativity and mobility for teens and kids with a range of disabilities.
6. Intermountain Park City (Utah) Hospital welcomed its first pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Marcella Woiczik, MD, to further expand pediatric care for families in the region.
7. Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley in Wilmington, named Suken Shah, MD, as the Shands/MacEwen Endowed Chair of Orthopedics and chair of the orthopedic surgery department. Dr. Shah has performed more than 4,000 procedures with a focus on complex spine surgery.
8. New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery appointed Daniel Green, MD, to its leadership team as chief of the pediatric orthopedic surgery service, succeeding Roger Widmann, MD. Dr. Green is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon specializing in knee surgery.
9. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was named the top hospital for pediatric orthopedics in 2023 and 2024 by U.S. News and World Report.
10. George Dyer, MD, an upper extremity surgeon at Mass General Brigham in Boston, was named to the board of directors for OrthoPediatrics.
11. Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital opened a new operating room dedicated to child, adolescent and young adult spine surgeries. The hospital is the second children's hospital in the country to use the nView s1 navigation system for providing three-dimensional images of the spine in real time during procedures.
12. Klane White, MD, was appointed the chair of the department of pediatric orthopedics and the Rose Brown Endowed Chair of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
13. Spokane, Wash.-based Shriners Children's opened a pediatric orthopedic outreach clinic in Yakima, Wash.
14. Nationwide Children's Hospital-Toledo (Ohio) took over Cincinnati-based Mercy Health's pediatric sports medicine and orthopedic services program, which serves local schools and youth programs in the area.
15. OrthoPediatrics established its first international direct sales organization in Germany that began operations Jan. 1 to expand the medical equipment manufacturer's global presence.
16. The Los Angeles, Calif.-based Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute launched a new youth sports medicine program.