0008-02-21 Einstein Orthopedics Updates NL_021821 (1)

Orthopedic Medicine
ISSUE ONE | SPRING 2021
UPDATE
Caption: Orthopedic residents Sarah Low, MD (left) and Blake Turvey, MD
(right) train with Department Chairman James S. Raphael, MD (center).
Evolving for the Future
From robotic surgery and orthobiologics to 3D printing and imaging, the
field of orthopedic medicine has evolved in exciting new ways over the past
20 years. As the field has progressed, so too has resident education. Einstein
Healthcare Network’s Orthopedic Residency Program is clear proof of
this evolution.
“So much has changed over the past two decades, I doubt our alumni
from years ago would even recognize our program today,” says James
S. Raphael, MD, Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.
According to Dr. Raphael, location is a good place to start. He shares that
when he joined the program in 2000, the residency was based fully at the
hospital. “Now we offer rotations at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children,
Shriners’ Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, MossRehab, Center One
Surgery Center, Willowcrest, our two sister hospitals in Elkins Park and
Montgomery County, and at our offices in Holmesburg, Collegeville, and
King of Prussia,” he says. “Likewise, the growth of the network has led to an
increase in case volume. We used to perform 900 cases a year, now we’re
doing 5,000.”
Even the number of residents accepted each year has increased with the
recent approval of a 15-resident program. This year we’ll be accepting three
residents a year instead of two.
Additionally, the department’s focus on sub-specialization has helped expand
the depth and breadth of the resident experience, making it a popular choice
for trainees. “Our attending physicians are board-certified, fellowship-trained
specialists,” he explains. “This means residents are exposed to all aspects
of orthopedic care across all specialties—hand and foot, upper extremity,
surgery, spine, oncology and joint replacement.”
It’s this last area Dr. Raphael is especially excited about. “Robotic surgery—
specifically hip and knee replacement, partial knee replacement and spine—
is a new service we’re offering patients in 2021,” he says. “We’ve also added
anterior hip replacements to help expand our outpatient joint program.”
The Importance
of Connections
If the COVID-19
pandemic has taught
us anything, it’s
the importance of
building and nurturing
connections with one
another. In this spirt,
we have launched
our inaugural issue of
Orthopedic Medicine
Update. Through this
newsletter, my hope is to engage with our
hundreds of alumni across the country and
around the world to exchange ideas, garner
support, and create a vibrant network
focused on the future of our profession.
As you’ll read in this issue, our department
has come a long way in recent years.
New clinical services, additional practice
locations, a competitive residency program,
and board pass rates among the nation’s
highest are all things that should make you
immensely proud.
Yet, as is often the case, with success
comes challenge.
Changes in government oversight and,
more specifically, the ways in which we
can fund our residency programs has
presented challenges as we work to
support our residents. As graduates of our
program, we hope to count on you, our
alumni community, to help us provide our
current and future residents with the same
outstanding experience you were afforded.
Thank you to all our alumni who continue
to support our program. To those of you
whom we’ve not spoken with in a while,
I invite you to contact me anytime. Our
doors are always open, and we would love
the chance to reconnect.
James S. Raphael, MD
Chairman, Department of Orthopedic Surgery
Director, Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery
Einstein Healthcare Network
215-456-6051 | RaphaelJ@einstein.edu
continued on page 2

Orthopedics Residency Program Director
Gene Shaffer, MD (right) meets with
residents during their morning conference.
Perfect Board Certification
Streak Nine Years Running
The fundamental mission of any residency program is to shape
knowledgeable, technically-sound, thoughtful practitioners.
Perhaps the most basic measure of that undertaking is the
board certification pass rate. Since 2011, one hundred percent
of Einstein’s orthopedic residents have passed their board
certification.
Gene Shaffer, MD, the Orthopedics Residency Program
Director, credits the achievement to the immersive nature of
the residency program, which accepts two new residents each
year, and its “robust” educational curriculum.
“It’s a relatively small residency, but I believe that benefits
our residents because they’re involved in the complete care
of our patients, including logging time in the OR, from very
early on in their training,” he says. “We also have a very strong
educational didactic which includes a daily conference.
Essentially, we’re immersing them in orthopedics from the first
day of their training, and every day thereafter.”
As further evidence of the value of the educational experience,
Dr. Shaffer points to the residents’ recent performance on the
annual American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)
Orthopaedic In-Training Examination. The comprehensive,
computer-based exam is designed to “facilitate knowledge
assessment in established principles and conventional
procedures and treatment modalities in orthopaedic surgery,”
according to the AAOS. Basically, it’s treated as a boardcertification
prep test.
Among U.S. orthopedic residency programs, the exam is the
most widely used of its kind. The 2019 exam was administered
to 5,110 residents across 238 national and international
residency programs, according to the AAOS.
From 2012 to 2017, according to Dr. Shaffer, Einstein’s
Orthopedics residency was the top-ranked program in the
country, based on its performance on the exam. And for
the last seven years, it’s placed above the 95th percentile.
(Rankings are determined by the aggregate score of a
program’s residents, Dr. Shaffer says.)
“Our program is resident-run and attending-supervised, so
this achievement belongs wholly to the residents themselves,”
Dr. Shaffer says. “Their continued success is a testament to their
determination and the diverse program we’ve developed here.”
2 | Spring 2021 | Orthopedic Medicine Update
continued from page 2
Evolving for the Future
Other additions to the department include a research
lab which conducts basic and clinical research, and a
regenerative medicine program. A full-time orthopedic
traumatologist has also been brought onboard to help
enhance the department’s trauma services.
“One final thing I think is important to mention is the diversity
of our staff,” Dr. Raphael says. “Our community is rich with
cultural and ethnic diversity and we want our staff to reflect the
people whom we serve. This has been a goal over the past
decade and one that we will continue to pursue into the future.”
A Surgeon Finds His Calling—
After a Brief Detour
After five years of spending his workdays mostly confined
to a cubicle, Colin Whitaker decided engineering wasn’t
the career he imagined it would be and resigned. Soon
after, he applied to medical school. It was a new direction
for him, but not an entirely unfamiliar one. Whitaker’s father
is an orthopedic surgeon.
“My dad never said anything to try to persuade me to
consider medical school, but he certainly influenced
my decision,” says Colin Whitaker, MD, now a fifthyear
resident in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.
“Ultimately, I wanted to pursue a career that interested
me, but would also push me to my limits.”
He appears to have found it at last. Asked to reflect on
his residency so far and describe what comes to mind,
Dr. Whitaker says, “How hard it was. I’ve learned so much
and grown as both a person and a physician over these
last five years.”
Later this year, following the conclusion of his residency,
Dr. Whitaker will be headed to the University of
Pennsylvania for a one-year orthopedic spine surgery
fellowship. He found himself gravitating to the specialty
during the course of his monthly rotations at Einstein.
“There are so many aspects of orthopedics that I enjoy,
and by focusing on the spine, I’ll be able to do spine
surgery as well as general orthopedics. Essentially, it
positions me to take full advantage of my training,”
Dr. Whitaker says. “I also appreciate the challenge
of managing patients who are a little more complex.”
At the end of his shift, during which he
can spend more than 10 hours in the
operating room, Dr. Whitaker hustles
home to offer some much-needed
support to his “very understanding
and accommodating” wife—the
couple has three young children
who range in age from six months to
six-years-old—before preparing
for the next day’s cases,
waking well before dawn,
and starting all over again.
Colin Whitaker, MD

A Residency Rich in Clinical
Experience and Life Lessons
Ask Scott H. Kozin, MD, what he remembers about his
orthopedic surgery residency at Einstein Medical Center
Philadelphia and a stream of vivid memories will follow,
some describing clinical experiences and others speaking
to the close camaraderie among many of the residents at
the time. Both were equally influential.
“I loved my residency. Clearly, I worked hard, but I also
had a lot of laughs along the way,” says Dr. Kozin, who has
served as Chief of Staff for Shriners Hospitals for Children—
Philadelphia since 2014. He specializes in upper extremity/
brachial plexus injuries, spinal cord injuries, congenital
differences, and upper limb reconstruction.
He is also the team leader for the Touching Hands Project,
the outreach arm of the American Society for Surgery of
the Hand that provides hand surgeries, rehabilitation, and
medical training in the world’s underserved communities.
Dr. Kozin says he developed his interest in hand surgery
during his Einstein residency.
“My time at Einstein instilled in me the importance of
personal reflection,” he says. “Dr. Milton Wohl, our
department Chairman, was a true renaissance man.
He taught me to think beyond orthopedics. He said,
‘You’ll need other things in life once you go into practice.’
Einstein Alumnus Scott H. Kozin, MD, Chief of Staff for
Shriners Hospitals for Children—Philadelphia
Dr. Earl Marmar expressed similar views on life and
orthopedics. Their advice proved very important, and I try to
convey similar thoughts to my residents and fellows today.”
This sentiment emerges in a number of Dr. Kozin’s
anecdotes from his residency. He respected the doctors
he studied under for their expertise, but he grew to admire
many of them because they understood their lives were
larger than their work. He’s tried to maintain that same
mindfulness in his own practice.
In the Lab, Progress is Measured in Inches
With each of its 11 orthopedic surgery residents simultaneously
participating in their own research, the Department of
Orthopedic Surgery Bioengineering Laboratory sees a lot
of traffic.
The lab’s various projects, which are overseen by John
Handal, MD, Director of Spine Surgery, and Solomon Praveen
Samuel, PhD, encompass basic science experiments, clinical
research, and case reports. Drs. Handal and Samuel develop
the ideas for the experiments and research by scouring peerreview
journals and then offer them up to the residents as part
of their learning experience.
“It’s always easier to work on a project that you’re interested
in,” Dr. Handal says of the approach. He founded the lab
about 10 years ago, when he was the department Chairman,
along with then-Associate Chairman and now-Chairman
James Raphael, MD.
Current research subjects include 3D printing, prosthesis
biomechanics, patient compliance, and gait. Asked how the
work may influence treatment protocols within the department,
Dr. Handal describes the route from “bench to the bedside”
as “incremental.”
“We solve one problem. Someone halfway around the
world will see our finding, and they’ll take it the next inch.
And it just keeps going,” he says. “Pfizer and Moderna’s
COVID-19 vaccines, as an example, are the result of
years, decades even, of research by many people.”
That said, the lab, which is generously supported
by Joan Wohl, the widow of the former department
Chairman Milton Wohl, MD, has invested significant time
and resources in exploring new forms of drug delivery,
specifically the administration of chemotherapy drugs
inside the bone.
“I think that’s something that, eventually, could have a
direct impact on our patient care,” Dr. Handal says.
Solomon Praveen Samuel, PhD (pictured) works with
John Handal, MD, to oversee the department’s various
research projects.
Orthopedic Medicine Update | Spring 2021 | 3

Einstein Healthcare Network
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or call 215-456-6278. Or share your news
at advance.einstein.edu/alumni.
The Day Einstein Earned All the Bragging Rights
While a medical student doing a rotation in the Einstein
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Michael Narvaez, MD,
had appreciated the way the residents cultivated a strong
sense of teamwork. Once he became one of those residents,
contributing to that culture became a point of pride for him.
So, there couldn’t have been a more fitting culmination to
Dr. Narvaez’s residency than when he won, in 2019, the
20th annual John R. Gregg Memorial Resident Bowl, a first
for Einstein.
Einstein is perennial participant in the Philadelphia
Orthopaedic Society’s monthly lecture series, which it hosts
for residents and attendings of the city’s seven orthopedic
residency programs. At the final gathering, a fifth-year
resident from each program competes in a knowledge test.
The “resident bowl” is awarded to the winner.
Needless to say, a torrent of bragging rights is attached to
the award.
“I tell people all the time that Einstein’s orthopedics program
is the best-kept secret in Philadelphia,” says Dr. Narvaez,
4 | Spring 2021 | Orthopedic Medicine Update
a former chief resident. “To be able
to win the resident bowl and draw
some attention to the department is
something that meant a lot to me, and
still does.”
He credits the daily fracture
conferences with molding him into the
surgeon he is today. “With so few Michael Narvaez, MD
residents, you’re on the spot all the
time as a junior resident,” Dr. Narvaez says. “That constant
pressure is what I needed. It lit a fire under me. In practice
now, I strive to stay on top of the literature so that I never
encounter a situation where I feel unprepared.” He adds that
the unique diversity of cases he faced during his residency
gave him the confidence to perform complex surgeries.
Following his residency, Dr. Narvaez completed a sports
medicine fellowship at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe
Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, which included serving
as the assistant team physician for a number of the city’s pro
sports and college teams. In October, he joined the Anderson
Orthopaedic Clinic in Virginia.
Supporting Einstein Healthcare Network’s Orthopedic Medicine Program
Gifts to support Einstein Healthcare Network’s Orthopedic Medicine Program
directly impact the training and well-being of our residents. You may make your
tax-deductible gift in support of the program by donating online to Einstein’s
Orthopedic Fund at advance.einstein.edu/alumni or calling 215-456-6278.
Office of Development
Braemer Education Building
5501 Old York Road
Philadelphia, PA 19141