Will Eward, DVM, MD, and his wife, Cindy Eward, DVM, DACVS, do an orthopedic exam on their dog, Virgil, at Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital in Durham.

Dr. Will Eward was recently featured in the Duke Cancer Institute newsletter for his work in finding better treatment for sarcoma.  ‘Many new cancer medications are first tested in research animals, such as mice bred to get cancer.  But studying that same drug in a pet dog who developed cancer naturally is much closer to studying it in a human.’

Read the full story about Dr. Ewards efforts at http://sites.duke.edu/dukecancerinstitute/?p=5247

The Orthopaedic Surgery departmental web site was unveiled this week at the November faculty meeting.  The ‘call to action’ for all faculty is to review the site for content accuracy – any updates or suggested changes would be submitted and compiled for review.  Corrections and updates will be made to the site in preparation for go-live.  All suggested enhancements will be presented back to our faculty leads for the 3 main categories of content:

• Education and Training – Dr. Fraser Leversedge
• Research – Dr. Ben Alman
• Patient Care – Dr. David Attarian

The faculty leads will decide what enhancements will be incorporated into the overall design.  All feedback should be submitted to Tim Riddle and John McCall by end of day, Monday, 11/23.

As a reminder, the test environment can be found at http://ortho.innovah.com

Friday, October 30th brought on Halloween celebration in the Orthopaedic Clinics.  NCOC had a pumpkin decorating and Halloween dessert contest. Page Road had a pod decorating contest, costume contest and pumpkin decorating contest.  DSSI dressed in themed costumes and had a pot luck lunch.  Duke South celebrated with an afternoon of treats.

Dr. Ben Alman, Dr. Robert Lark, Dr. Tim Hresko, Dr. Robert Fitch

On Wednesday, November 4th, the Orthopaedic Grand Rounds Conference welcomed Timothy Hresko, M.D. as the visiting lecturer presenting on Pediatric Trauma.  For those faculty members that were unable to attend, below is a bio of M. Timothy Hresko, M.D.:

Dr. M. Timothy Hresko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and practices at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Hresko received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed two years of general surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital, orthopaedic residency at Tufts University, and pediatric orthopaedic fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Hresko has served or is currently serving on several departmental, hospital, regional, national and international committees and numerous societies. He spends many hours teaching medical students, residents, clinical fellows and research fellows and has given many teaching presentations to his peers and actively participates in presentations and courses locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Hresko is especially interested in the treatment of pediatric spinal deformities. He introduced video assisted thoracoscopic spinal surgery to the Children’s Hospital Boston and serves as the departmental resource for this minimally invasive technique. He trains all of the orthopaedic fellows in this technique and subsequent clinical experience. He participates in the evaluation and advancement of evolving techniques such as fusion-less spine surgery to maintain growth potential in the child.

Dr. Hresko’s research has focused on pediatric hip and spine, re-evaluation of the association between thrombotic diathesis and Legg-Perthes disease. His current research is centered on spinal deformity with prospective evaluations of functional activity and outcomes.

Dr. Hresko resides in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts with his wife, Ellen.

Congratulations to the following Doctor of Physical Therapy in Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty with their recent promotions:

Adam P Goode

Adam P. Goode, Assistant Professor – Track IV to Associate Professor – Track IV, effective June 1, 2015

Elizabeth F Ross

Elizabeth F. Ross, Assistant Consulting Professor to Associate Consulting Professor, effective November 1, 2015

We are very excited about the upcoming launch of the new Ortho Web site – we are continuing to make changes and enhancements prior to the “go-live” date.  The project team has completed the 1^st draft pass of all the content for “go-live” with the faculty leads and senior staff.  The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The focus continues to be on the core content and after all updates have been made on the site, the web developer will work on adding additional photos to highlight all of the incredible work within the department to include patient care, research and education.

During the two week preview starting 11/2 we will seek input from internal department resources, School of Medicine and Duke Medicine administration.

PBS NOVA Next is NOVA’s award-winning digital publication that provides answers from the cutting edge of science and technology. Dr. Farsh Guilak was featured in October for his project ‘3D Woven Synthetic Cartilage Could Help Your Knees Replace Themselves’.  “Cartilage degeneration often results in arthritis, which can reduce mobility and cause chronic pain. It cannot be repaired, but research on replacement tissues may soon offer a viable alternative.  If you have arthritis in your hip or knee, we don’t just have to fix a little pothole, we can resurface the entire joint,” said Dr. Farshid Guilak, a Duke University researcher whose team is working on a technique to replace large swaths of existing cartilage with new tissue grown from your own stem cells. The team is currently testing their approach on large animals, and Dr. Guilak expects to begin human testing within four to five years, if not sooner. ”

Read the full article at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/3d-woven-synthetic-cartilage-could-help-your-knees-replace-themselves/

From: Kyle Cavanaugh, Duke Vice President for Administration

The enrollment period for 2016 Benefits will be from Oct. 26 to Nov. 6. This annual period is the only time faculty and staff can enroll or make changes to these benefits outside of a qualifying life event such as marriage or the birth of a child.

Health care remains one of our most popular and valued benefits at Duke. More than 90 percent of eligible employees choose health coverage through one of our medical plans.

Providing a competitive health plan and navigating the employer requirements under the Affordable Care Act continues to be a challenge, but we are pleased to continue to offer four health plans to meet the diverse needs of our faculty, staff and family members, with very few changes from last year. Through diligent management of our plans, we have kept premium increases for medical insurance well below the national average, and Duke continues to pay most of the premium cost for individual coverage and about half of the premium for family coverage.

Individual coverage will only increase from $1 to $5 per month, and family coverage will increase from $6 to $24 per month in 2016. There will be slight adjustments to the specialist co-pay for all plans and the deductibles for Duke Options and Duke Basic. There are no changes in cost next year for two of the three dental plans and the vision plan.

This year, we are also asking employees to verify the eligibility of dependents covered by any of Duke’s medical plans. This is part of our efforts to manage the rising cost of health care by ensuring compliance with plan provisions and the appropriate payment of legitimate health claims.

[Open Enrollment Presentation]: http://www.slideshare.net/workingatduke/open-enrollment-for-2016-benefits-53375537

Today, we upload the final content to our new web site in preparation for our 1 week testing and content review Nov 2 – 6.  The new web site will go-live, Monday, Nov. 16th.  The faculty will receive an overview during the upcoming November faculty meeting.

The project team would like thank everyone involved in driving content and images for the new web site.  We look forward to your feedback and ongoing updates to make this a dynamic web site for the department.

On October 21, Dr. James DeOrio, M.D. was the guest speaker for the Danish Foot and Ankle Society. As coauthor for several papers on the subject, Dr. DeOrio presented on the ‘Adult Acquired Flatfoot Deformity’. 

For more information on the Danish Foot and Ankle Society and pictures of the event, visit http://ortopaedi.dk/index.php?id=20