This morning I began my adventure at Wake Orthopedics. The morning started with an orientation of the North Raleigh Wake Orthopedics office. I met some of the physician assistants, got to know the ins and outs of the office, and was given a little work space for when I am working on my project.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I will be both shadowing different doctors and working on a project. The project is co-authoring an article with my father to be submitted for publication to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. The article is comparing the success and failure rates of autografts (replacement of tissue with tissue from the patient) versus allografts (replacement of tissue from a cadaver) in Anterior Cruciate Ligament repairs. Today, I spent time compiling the data from surgeries over the past 5 years, including information such as age, gender, type of graft, additional surgeries performed, and the femoral fixations implicated. I also collaborated with my dad to construct the abstract of the report.
In the afternoon I shadowed Dr. Jon Chappell. Dr. Chappell specializes in sports medicine, specifically shoulders. I had the opportunity to shadow him in all of his clinics, listening in to his meetings with patients. I was intrigued watching him explain x-rays and MRI’s to the patients. His capability to identify and explain each individual tendon and ligament in the x-rays. A common thread I noticed was how he performed similar mobility tests on each of the patients to determine their condition. Based on their answers and responses, he then came up with a plan for normally the next 6 weeks.
I enjoyed the first day and cannot wait for tomorrows adventure!