UPMC Sports Medicine Specialists Named Among Best in Country
By: Chuck Finder
It’s a different, and more specific, poll this time around. But the result stays the same: UPMC Sports Medicine carries a distinct national reputation for clinical and educational excellence.
One year ago, Orthopedics This Week surveyed the industry’s thought leaders to name the 19 top sports-medicine specialists in the United States, and nine of them either practiced or trained at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Sports Medicine.
Only Weill Cornell Medical College and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York equaled the Pitt/UPMC number with three current surgeons on the list of what Orthopedics This Week called “the finest sports knee physicians, teachers, investigators or administrators in the country.” And another comes from Canada.
“This time last year, nearly half of the 19 people chosen by this same journal as America’s top Sports Medicine specialists either work at UPMC or were trained here. Now one of every four top sports knee surgeons – by their survey – are UPMC employed or former Pitt fellows, residents and students,” said Dr. Fu, who, like Dr. Harner, also trained at Pitt. “This shows that the best clinicians, the best surgeons and the best care starts at UPMC and Pitt, then resonates across the United States and world. It also shows that the best education to become one of the world’s best all starts here, too.”
The seven, most of whom have made the US News & World Report Top Docs list previously, are:
Dr. Fu – David Silver professor and Orthopaedics Surgery chair, former president of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), longtime Pitt team physician and internationally renown educator/lecturer.
Dr. Harner – UPMC Sports Medicine and with Dr. Fu one of the founding physicians of the center; also a longtime team physician and former AOSSM president.
Dr. West – associate professor of professor at Pitt in Orthopaedic Surgery and team orthopedics physician of the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt basketball.
C. Benjamin Ma, M.D. – University of California San Francisco chief of Sports Medicine and noted researcher (resident and fellow).
Brian Cole, M.D. — Rush University Medical Center professor, chair of surgery at Rush Oak Park Hospital, and NBA Chicago Bulls team physician and MLB Chicago White Sox co-team physician (fellow).
Darren Johnson, M.D. — University of Kentucky chair of Orthopedic Surgery and head orthopedic surgeon for Kentucky Wildcats athletics (fellow).
Mark Miller, M.D. — University of Virginia head of Sports Medicine, James Madison University team physician and respected educator (fellow).
