Recording - 08-19-2023 12:24:44

00:01 This is Mark Swiontkowski speaking to you from Albuquerque. Again, we're at the annual meeting of the 20th Century Orthopedic association, and I have noticed that there have been so many through my years on the organization, contributing members who are pediatric orthopedic surgeons. And I'm privileged to speak with Dr. George Thompson on that long list, and he's going to help us discuss and recall all of the influential members of this society who are pediatric orthopedists. And George.

00:38 All right, take it.

00:39 Take it away.

00:40 Mark, thanks for asking me to speak on this topic. I actually started off by looking through our memorial list and then the active list to try and see if any of my mentors were there so that I could talk more in detail about them. And unfortunately, Salter wasn't listed. Dawson Amstutz Will Weston, people that I really have helped shape my career. But what I did notice is the amount of major leadership positions that P. D'Ortho has had in orthopedics and who were then members of the 20th Century Orthopedic Association. So I just went through the list. I started off by taking the memoriam list, and there were eight people that are clearly identified as pediatric orthopedic members, most recently Terry Canal, who we know just passed away this past week. And then in the active members, we have 20 who are clearly identified as peds ortho. I might have missed some people who made major contributions who were general orthopedists, but I'm not real sure I haven't. This was. I did this yesterday morning. It was quick, I can tell you. But. So out of the 28 members that are of the 20th century that are identified as Pete D'Ortho, who either living or are dead at this time, we. Out of that group, there are four academy presidents. There are 11 Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America presidents, three SRS presidents, four Shriners Hospital for Children's chief medical officers, and two AOA presidents. That's an enormous contribution by the P. Duartho, not only to our society, but to orthopedics, you know, in general. Right now, granted, there are overlaps in that. I think all those. All those presidencies came down out of 15 people. So there once we had strong leadership by one person in one area, likely they did something else and another subspecialty at the same time. So anyway, I just thought people might want to be aware of what this organization has meant to our specialty of orthopedic surgery in general. That's what I did.

02:51 Yeah. Well, I appreciate you doing that. I have long said, and I've sent this, said this in many venues, that in any orthopedic department, the most reasonable, uncomplicated and group mentality minded people are the pediatric orthopedists. It's just, I think, a characteristic of people that go into the specialty of caring for children.

03:17 Well, I would agree with that. And I thought, why is it that way? And I think there are a couple of reasons. Number one, in the past, P. Dortha wasn't really financially driven. It was driven for the love of what we were doing. And I think those two reasons are why we tend to be very heavy academic, academically oriented in any department, and we tend to stay more focused about what we're doing rather than looking at what we're going to make out of it personally for ourselves.

03:46 Right. I just feel also obliged. I am currently finishing my term as the editor of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. My predecessor was Vern Tolo.

03:55 I know.

03:56 And Vern is just a delight. A wonderful person. So easy to work with and continues to serve the Journal even even though he's retired from the position.

04:07 He was my successor as the deputy editor of Peds Ortho. You may not even remember.

04:11 I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. We just. Wonderful subspecialty of our field and people that continue to make great contributions. And I can't help but also mention my Dear colleague Paul DeRosa, who left us this year. And what a leader. What a balanced person who really had equal weighting on faith and family and professional activities.

04:39 Yeah. I had the honor of writing his obituary for the Scoliosis Research Society and stuff. So.

04:46 What a great man. So much fun. His interest in chocolate and the candy he made.

04:53 We are still in touch with Mary Ann. We had dinner with her twice last year. I think we were down in Hilton Head with Colin and Ann Mosley.

05:01 Yeah. And that brings up another, I think an extension of this family of pediatrics. Of course, Pediatrics serves this group that were called the Pediatric Mafia. And it included the names of those individuals you just mentioned. Oh, yeah. Travel together a lot for pleasure and lots of independent social activities.

05:24 We all know who they are. Hensinger is a member of this organization.

05:29 Right, right. A Mafia member.

05:32 Well, I owe a lot to them too. I mean, Paul was who put me into the presidential line of Posner, you know, so he had an influence. I don't think of myself as one of the Mafia members, but they had a. A role in my career. And Bob and I, of course, have been co editors of JPO now for 2020 years.

05:53 It's hard to believe. Time flies. Well, I want to thank you, George, for going through this exercise.

06:02 It didn't mean for it to be as long as it was, but it got to be a lot of fun as I got into it for the reasons you've already outlined. It made me proud for what my specialty is and what we've accomplished as a group.

06:15 Just a great group of very socially minded, professionally minded individuals and real pleasure.

06:23 To be associated with you. All right.

06:25 Thanks a lot, George.

06:26 And Mark, thanks for asking me to speak on this topic.

06:29 Perfect.

06:30 All.