"Only six percent of first year medical students think curing disease is the most important purpose of medicine," stated an opening slide at the "Clinician Scientist Development Program" held October 17-19 in Rosemont, IL, chaired by Francis Y. Lee, MD, PhD of Columbia Orthopaedics. Dr. Lee said, "This statistic [from the Association of American Medical Colleges] underscores the concern that future research may be threatened due to the lack of physicians pursuing a dual career as scientists." Dr. Lee, a translational researcher and noted oncological orthopaedic surgeon, is among a unique group of physicians who gather each year as the faculty for this conference devoted to mentoring young orthopaedic surgeons.

To help encourage young physicians to choose a career path that could have so much impact, participants were introduced to the definition of a successful clinician scientist:    1) The physician must maintain an active surgical practice that includes

unsolved clinical problems, 2) The physician must desire to advance knowledge in a focused area of scholarly research, and 3) The physician must be engaged in securing funding for scholarships or research.

In addition to volunteering his time on a national level to advance research, Dr. Lee is the Director of the Center for Orthopaedic Research at Columbia University Medical Center and has recently introduced a program to serve as an incubator for the development of future orthopaedic clinician-scholars. The Translational Research in Orthopaedics (TRIO) Postdoctoral Research Scholar Program offers a six-year research residency track with one year dedicated to research. Upon successful completion of the research program, the successful candidate will enter the five-year Columbia Orthopaedics residency training program. Read the full story. 

VEPTR Procedure Ends Mother's Search for Help

"At six months old, a doctor in Miami told me, 'Take him home; he has two weeks,'" recalled Grace, mother of 12-year-old Manny who was born with congenital contractual arachnodactyly that had evolved into severe asphyxiating scoliosis. "That was the wrong thing to say to me. I vowed that as long as I am alive, I would fight for my child."

Grace's fight has taken her from Miami to Texas and most recently, to the New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Grace has seen her son through some very dark times, and thankfully, he has beaten the odds along the way.

"At one point, we were in the emergency room every other day," said Grace. Manny's syndrome causes bone deformities and severe scoliosis, which had become so advanced that he was having extreme difficulty eating and breathing. His pelvis was twisting up and toward the front of his body and as a result, his internal organs were being crushed. His right lung collapsed and his left lung also began to collapse. He could hardly eat because his stomach was being constricted. Doctors told Grace that Manny was dying due to the many complications of his medical condition and something needed to be done as soon as possible to save his life. Read the full story.