Dunn at SI-BONE, Keith Valentine at SeaSpine, Neel Anand at Cedars Sinai and Todd Albert at HSS—in orthopedics..
What is this ethereal notion of leadership?
Among the most prestigious awards given by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is the annual William W. Tipton Jr., M.D. leadership award. Why does AAOS have an award for leadership?
William W. Tipton M.D., for whom the award is named, was an orthopedic surgeon, educator, and former chair of the AAOS Board of Councilors. Dr. Tipton also served as the executive vice president of AAOS and was the CEO of the organization for nearly 10 years. The William W. Tipton Jr, M.D. Leadership Award was created to honor Dr. Tipton and those like him who demonstrate a sustained commitment to leadership excellence.
At a time when, we think, leadership excellence has never been as important as it is now, we decided to profile the 2019 winner of the William W. Tipton Jr., M.D. leadership award—Captain Dana C. Covey, M.D.
Dr. Covey’s career is a profile of duty, honor, patients, colleagues and country. A profile, in other words, in leadership.
Wartime Doctor…Deployed 10 (!) Times
Captain Covey’s exposure to orthopedic trauma was a literal baptism of fire. “I was deployed for the first Gulf War—Operation Desert Storm—in 1991. After a bombing campaign, the ground war was over in roughly 100 hours and thus there weren’t many casualties. During that deployment, I served in a field hospital in Saudi Arabia, and aid stations in Kuwait, and Iraq. I was then deployed to the Balkans in 1994 as part of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). I was a ‘blue helmet’ UN surgeon in Velica Gorica, Croatia, and in Sarajevo, Bosnia, as one of a handful of Americans present during its siege.”
“In the Balkans we primarily treated civilians. It was particularly hard to witness because these were people who were formerly neighbors had split along ethnic and religious lines. The Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims who had once lived alongside one another in peace, were killing each other. This internecine fighting dated back hundreds of years and so had been a powder keg for some time.”
…and Humanitarian
“I spent seven months in Haiti in 1997 doing humanitarian work in a Navy field hospital. Our involvement in Haiti at that time was a consequence of U.S. engagement following the country’s change from military to civilian rule. In my capacity as second in command of the field hospital we cared not only U.S. personnel, but thousands of Haitian nationals with treatments ranging from vaccinations to amputations.”
From 2001 to 2004, Captain Covey and his family lived in Okinawa, Japan, where he served as chief of surgery at the Navy’s largest overseas hospital. “It was a very enjoyable experience and I found Japan an interesting contrast to the U.S. culture. Americans tend to have big houses, big cars, etc. But in Japan due to a high population density, people pay attention to the utility of each space. For example, a living room by day becomes a bedroom at night.”
