When legendary quarterback Dan Marino served Dr. Peter Indelicato dinner—complete with a napkin draped over his arm—it wasn’t because both of their names end in vowels…it was because Dr. Indelicato, now President-elect of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), had saved his career.
Dr. Indelicato has also helped build careers. While he doesn’t wear them all at once, Dr. Indelicato, the head team physician for the University of Florida Gators, is the only orthopedist with five national championship rings. On the research front, Dr. Indelicato, the Wayne Huizenga Professor of Sports Medicine at the University of Florida, altered clinical practice with his landmark article on the wisdom of not operating on isolated tears of medial collateral ligament of the knee. As if all that were not sufficient, he is insightful enough to hold onto what he hopes is not a dying art…listening deeply to patients.
Born in Brooklyn in 1944, Peter Indelicato entered a family where resolve and shared parenting were the norm. “My dad was a Sicilian immigrant who got ‘off the boat’ with no money, and who managed to become a cardiologist. Seeing how much reward he derived from taking care of people was a huge inspiration to me. Despite his love of medicine, he never coerced me to do anything but find my passion. I watched him, and drew lessons from his kindness. His patients were not affluent, and would occasionally pay him in produce (once it was live Maine lobsters). My mom was devoted to our family, and was a strong, outspoken woman. They provided an early example of the benefit of having two involved parents, and each evening we gathered in the kitchen to participate in cooking the family meal.”
It was at one of those memorable dinners that young Peter told his father, “Dad, you were right.” Dr. Indelicato: “In high school I was socializing with a rather tough crowd that had no interest in higher education. When I told my dad that I didn’t want to attend college, he said, ‘I don’t agree, but here is what I will do. I will get you a summer job…the kind of job that you could get without a college degree.’ Yep…it was construction. After a month of toughing it out in the sun I told my dad over dinner, ‘You know, college might be interesting after all.’”
Dr. Indelicato enjoyed the college atmosphere so much that he would remain at one for his entire career…even as he changed along with that atmosphere. “Being the head team doctor for the Florida Gators continues to be the most exciting part of my job. Things are much different than they were 35 years ago because there is more instant information available. In the past, if you told an athlete that he had a sprained ankle that was the end of it. Now, the athlete searches the Internet for additional information—and, on many occasions—gets his family involved. You may have an uncle texting you about the athlete’s injury. If you have met the uncle that’s one thing. If not, then you have to ignore that person’s outreach…it could be a bookie in disguise.”
Like many orthopedists, Dr. Indelicato was drawn to the field because of its concreteness, i.e., there was a problem…I went in and did something…and now there is no problem. Dr. Indelicato, who trained at the famed Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, states, “I chose orthopedics in part because I did not want to deal with ongoing issues such as congestive heart failure. Also, I was an avid sports fan, and was especially nuts about the New York Giants. When I interned at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York I actually rotated with Dr. Tony Pisani, the team doctor for the Giants. My eyes were like saucers as I worked alongside him, taking care of my heroes both in the OR and in postop. My excitement was palpable to Dr. Pisani and he took me under his wing.”
Years later, Dr. Indelicato would serve as a Consulting Team Physician with the Miami Dolphins for nearly 15 years…and he was personally selected by coach Don Shula. “After the 1988 season Don Schula called me and said, ‘Come to Miami.’ My reply was, ‘Thanks, but I love my job here. I will, however, work as an associate to someone down there.’ Don let me select the new physician in Miami; he handled the day to day issues and I went for the games.”
“Operating on Dan Marino and working with Don Shula were really fantastic experiences. Don could be tough, but at times he was almost a teddy bear. From him I learned how to be more direct and succinct. It’s the nature of coaching…you don’t want sugarcoating because the more you dance around things the more opportunity there is for misunderstanding.”
Along with diplomacy, Dr. Indelicato will certainly bring the “Shula skills” to his upcoming term as President of the AOSSM. “Being elected to provide stewardship to this organization is the crowning jewel of my professional career. Our Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention (STOP) campaign, which is aimed at minimizing youth sports-related injuries, is gaining traction. One of my primary goals as President will be to involve the National Athletic Trainers Association more in our work. “
My eventual goal is to have a certified athletic trainer in every high school so that injuries can be prevented through proper weight training and conditioning. As it is now, kids are getting information from sources that are not based on science.
When asked about one of his most powerful moments as an orthopedist, Dr. Indelicato says, “One night an eight-year-old boy came into the ER. He had fallen off his dad’s lap while riding on a lawnmower and his leg got caught in the blades. It was clear that we would have to amputate. This child was screaming, ‘Please don’t cut my leg off.’ Even now this makes me emotional…it was very hard to go in after surgery and tell him the news. The hospital staff rallied around him, as did his heroes, a number of players from the Florida Gators team. We got him a state of the art prosthesis for his leg and he went on to play sports.”
Dr. Indelicato is also known for laying the groundwork for nonoperative treatment. “In 1982 I was seeing a lot of isolated tears of the medial collateral ligament of the knee. I checked the literature and discovered a little known article published in 1974…an article that reflected my thinking that we may be operating unnecessarily. My point was that we were making these big incisions to stitch a torn ligament together, the ends of which are next to one another anyway. I undertook nonoperative treatment on a number of patients to see if they would arrive at the same endpoint…and they did. I am proud to say that my efforts changed clinical practice and saved a lot of patients from more hardship.”
Whether in the exam room or on the sidelines, Dr. Indelicato fixes his gaze and trains his ears on his patients. And he loves every minute. “I am so blessed to have an extraordinary passion and enthusiasm for my work. Actually, my professional life has been so enjoyable that I’ve never really felt like I had to work. Part of this is that I truly take pleasure in listening to a patient, an art that I hope is not dying. Although you may have evidence that says you should operate, something the patient has said—or not said—can make you pause. Let’s say someone has a torn ACL and fits the surgical criteria, but you get a sense that the patient is not going to devote himself to the rehab process. The only way you are going to pick that up is through listening. In that case you could enroll him in a six-month preop rehab program as a ‘test’ of his commitment.”
His most significant accomplishment? “I have brought three wonderful children into the world. My 36-year-old son is a systems engineer in California, my 34-year-old son is a radiation oncologist in Gainesville, and my 30-year-old daughter is a pediatric nurse practitioner and also lives locally.”
Dr. Peter Indelicato has not missed a Florida Gators game in 34 years. He now has “permission” to do so, however. “I have just retired from my head physician position, something that will allow me the freedom to attend games when I am available. I will now have more time for travel; while I go to Italy every year, I would also like to explore South America and the Pacific Rim. It is a new chapter in a book of my own making.”
Dr. Peter Indelicato…following his passion and leading sports medicine into the future.
