The OrthoPod – Details, episodes & analysis

Associate Professor Erich Rutz is a Swiss-trained paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. For 15 years, he worked at the University Children’s Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, where he was Head of their Neuromuscular Hip Surgery Program and Gait Laboratory. Then, in April 2020, Erich was recruited to the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne to commence as a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon and the Director of the RCH Hugh Williamson Gait Laboratory. While Erich is an expert in the surgical correction of musculoskeletal deformities suffered by children with cerebral palsy, he is also a very accomplished researcher and in March 2022, he became the inaugural Bob Dickens Chair of Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at The University of Melbourne. Erich’s research interests are directed toward understanding complex gait disorders and in the future he hopes to improve the management and functional outcomes for children with cerebral palsy.

Andrew Fraval graduated Medical School from Melbourne University in 2012 and completed the Victorian orthopaedic training program in 2022. Andrew has recently returned from sub-specialty training in primary and revision hip and knee joint replacement surgery with the prestigious Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. This was an American-accredited fellowship program which rarely grants acceptance to foreign-trained surgeons. During this time, Andrew gained valuable experience in robotic-assisted surgery, revision arthroplasty, and managing of prosthetic joint infections. As a Melbourne-trained orthopaedic surgeon, Andrew is now back home and holds public appointments at St Vincent's and Austin hospitals, and consults privately at Victorian Bone + Joint Specialists in Fitzroy.

Associate Professor Michael Ponsford is a Rehabilitation Physician at Epworth Healthcare with over 25 years’ experience traumatic brain injury, orthopaedic and orthogeriatric rehabilitation. As well as offering superb teaching to medical students in the principles of Rehabilitation Medicine, Michael is also the Director of Training at Rehabilitation Medicine Training Victoria, the governing body for providing training and continuing education to Rehabilitation Medicine Fellows and trainees. 

RMSANZ Private Practice Special Interest Group Position Statement on Rehabilitation following Total Knee Replacement - https://rmsanz.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/180503-FINAL-Positon-Statement-on-Rehabilitation-following-TKR-compressed.pdf 

Rehabilitation Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand - https://rmsanz.net/ 

Rehabilitation Medicine Training Victoria - http://rmtv.org.au/

Dr John Orchard is a Sports and Exercise physician with over 20 years of experience. Dr Orchard completed his medical degree at the University of Melbourne and would go on to become the first Sports and Exercise physician trainee in Australia. Dr Orchard’s medical career has seen him working as club doctor to the Sydney Swans in the AFL and Sydney Roosters in the NRL, to his current role as Chief Medical Officer at Cricket Australia. Off the cricket pitch, Dr Orchard is an expert in muscle and tendon injuries and their non-surgical management, and he has a significant research background with over 300 publications, along with a role as Adjunct Professor in the University of Sydney School of Public Health.

Dr Orchard's website - https://www.johnorchard.com

Sports injury classification system - https://www.johnorchard.com/osiics-downloads.html/osiics-downloads.html

Cricket injury epidemiology - https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/36/4/270.full.pdf

AFL injury epidemiology - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0363546513476270 

Professor Peter Choong is the Sir Hugh Devine Chair of Surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and the Head of the Departments of Surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and The University of Melbourne. A graduate of the University of Melbourne Medical School in 1984, Professor Choong has almost 40 years’ experience in research (including 637 research publications), teaching and medical leadership, and is a distinguished surgical leader who has dedicated his career to improving treatments for musculoskeletal diseases, especially in orthopaedic reconstruction and oncology. 

Dr Sean Stevens is a General Surgeon and the Director of the General and Trauma Emergency Surgery Unit at Austin Health. Sean has interests in global surgery and has previously completed a Master of Public Health and led project work in Kenya and East Timor. Sean is also the Supervisor of Prevocational Surgical Training at Austin Health. His background in Surgical Education includes the completion of a Master of Surgical Education and he is currently a PhD-candidate within the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery investigating the use of multidisciplinary simulation in trauma care.

Dr Chris Schilling is an academic and consultant health economist who has over 15 years of experience in economic modelling and research across academia, industry, and consultancy. As part of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Total Joint Replacement, Dr Schilling conducts research into the cost-effectiveness of surgery and the reduction of low-value care in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Dr Schilling also leads the KPMG health economic team, where he and his team provide economic evaluation and modelling to a range of government and industry clients with work that has influenced key public policy debates around obesity, mental health, low-value care, and e-cigarettes.

Chris's Profile: https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/contacts/s/chris-schilling.html

"All models are wrong": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

Predictors of inpatient rehabilitation after total knee replacement: an analysis of private hospital claims data: https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/209/5/predictors-inpatient-rehabilitation-after-total-knee-replacement-analysis

Dr Alessandro Bruschi is an orthopaedic resident at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna due to finish his specialist training in 2023. Dr Bruschi’s surgical interests are in orthopaedic oncology and sports traumatology, and he has research interests in exoskeletons and neuromuscular protheses. His penultimate year of orthopaedic training will involve coming to Melbourne for a fellowship at St Vincent’s Hospital and hopefully starting a PhD in orthopaedic oncology.

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, Neuromuscular Interfaces, and Foreign Body Response in Artificial Neuromuscular Prostheses: A Review of the Literature for an In Vivo Application: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adhm.202100041 

KidneyDose: https://apkgk.com/com.kdmediteck.kidneydose 

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder is a physician specialising in rheumatology, Director of the Monash-Cabrini Department of Musculoskeletal Health and Clinical Epidemiology at Cabrini Hospital and a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Monash University. She is known internationally as a vocal proponent of evidence-based medicine and for her landmark studies, particularly those examining treatments accepted into practice before proper evaluation. She has published more than 600 scientific papers and is in the top 0.1 per cent of the world's most cited scientists. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to epidemiology and rheumatology in 2020 and admitted as a fellow to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015.

Buy the book:

Hardcopy - https://www.bookshop.unsw.edu.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9781742237350&11180117 

eBook - https://www.amazon.com/Hippocrasy-doctors-betraying-their-oath-ebook/dp/B09KN222CX/ref=sr_1_1

A Randomized Trial of Vertebroplasty for Painful Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa0900429 

Espresso Sara https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coffee_drinks 

Dr Priya Sumithran is an endocrinologist who is a member of the council of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. As a clinician researcher, Dr Sumithran leads the Obesity Research Group at the University of Melbourne Department of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and is the Head of Obesity Medicine at Austin Health. Dr Sumithran’s research and clinical interests are in the neuroendocrine regulation of appetite and eating behaviours, the intersection between obesity and mental health, and improving access to effective treatment of obesity.

References

1. The effect of rate of weight loss on long-term weight management: a randomised controlled trial: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(14)70200-1/fulltext
2. Potential gut–brain mechanisms behind adverse mental health outcomes of bariatric surgery: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-021-00520-2
3. Feasibility of exercise and weight management for people with hip osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity: A pilot study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665913121000376