Javad Parvizi, M.D., the James Edward Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Sidney Kimmel School of Medicine and Rothman Orthopaedics in Philadelphia, has been named as the 33rd President of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS).
Dr. Parvizi completed his medical school education in the UK and then undertook a residency in orthopedic surgery at Mayo Clinic. He then headed to Switzerland where he did a fellowship in the management of hip disorders in young adults.
A renown surgeon and researcher, Dr. Parvizi has received multiple awards from global societies and research funding from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense, Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation, Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation and Arthritis Foundation. He has been given the honorary membership of over 30 societies around the world, but as a leader, he has served as President of the MusculoSkeletal Infection Society (2013) and Eastern Orthopedic Association (2018).
Dr. Parvizi is also the founder and CEO of Parvizi Surgical Innovation (PSI) LLC, an incubator and accelerator that develops innovative products in healthcare to improve patient care.
“I am humbled and honored to be a servant leader of the most respected and admired arthroplasty organization in the world. Forward, to improve patient care,” said Dr. Parvizi, an AAHKS member since 2004, who has served on the Nominating Committee, as a Board Member-at-Large, Chair of the Research Committee and Associate Editor for The Journal of Arthroplasty.
Reflecting on how his past leadership positions might inform his AAHKS term, Dr. Parvizi told OTW, “Having served in previous leadership positions will obviously allow me to better handle the challenges that the leader of any organization will face.”
“In addition to prior issues related to physician fee reductions, we are now facing newer problems such as the rising cost of care, staff shortage and so on. I believe the experience I gathered from serving the previous societies will help me have a more mature approach to the numerous challenges that our community is facing.”
When OTW asked where he thinks the field of infection sciences is headed, Dr. Parvizi commented, “Tough to know. What we do know is that the current approach to management of orthopedic infections is far from perfect.”
“We have challenges. Diagnosing implant-related infections, treatment of periprosthetic joint infection has a very high failure rate, our patients face numerous morbidities and even mortality in their journey when PJI [prosthetic joint infection] diagnosis is handed to them.”
“We are beginning to understand the role that microbiome and loss of integrity of gut epithelium plays in clinical infections and sophisticated methods for detection of viable, but not culturable (VBNC) organisms is being developed. So, the future of infection sciences in general, and orthopedic infections in particular, is going to be very different than the current state of affairs. We are witnessing a re-approach to the problem of infection already and the emerging science of microbiome is changing the face of medicine.”
Amazing scientist and surgeon.
I’m almost five years from my infected hip replacement. So far so good but I do worry if it will come back.
My infection was a bacteria from my mouth. In 2019 I was very sick a few times and I believe it was Covid and my immune system was so busy fighting it that it couldn’t stay on top of the normal bacteria. That same year I had multiple people tell me they knew of someone with an infected joint also. I had my hip replacement for 30 years prior to 2019 and never heard anyone say they knew someone with an infected joint. There should be a nation wide survey of all joint doctors giving their infection rates for 2013-2018 and 2019-2023 and compare the differences. If it is significantly higher in the 2019-2023 then this is a signal that when a weird bug is going around that people with joint replacements could be at risk of infection.
Bravo and stay they course