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Prague TWC 2011

Plenary Speakers 

Christian Gerber (Switzerland)
Partial Rotator Cuff Tears

After medical school at the University of Bern, Yale and San Diego, Dr Christian Gerber started his residency in general surgery and traumatology at the Hospital of Davos and then underwent a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Bern (Prof R. Ganz). He later undertook fellowships in foot, tumour and paediatric orthopaedics in Paris, France. However, during his fellowship at the University of Texas in San Antonio (Dr C.A. Rockwood) his main interest became shoulder surgery, a subspecialty in which he was more and more active upon his return to Bern. Later on, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at the Hospital of Fribourg and also assumed the Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Zurich.

After several publications in knee surgery, he devoted his academic activities mostly to shoulder surgery, focusing mainly on problems related to the rotator cuff and to arthroplasty. He is the only four-time Charles S. Neer Award winner and he became a Kappa Delta laureate for his contributions to rotator cuff disease in 2007. His curriculum vitae includes more than 300 scientific contributions and he has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Dr Gerber served as President of the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and the Elbow (ESSSE) from 1995 to 1998 and is currently the President of the Swiss Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology.
    

Pierre Hoffmeyer (Switzerland)
Polytrauma: An Evolving Spectrum

A University of Geneva graduate in Medicine, Dr Pierre Hoffmeyer spent his two first years of residency at the Vancouver General Hospital for his general surgery training. He then returned to Geneva where he completed his orthopaedic training in the Orthopaedic Service headed successively by Professors W. Taillard and H. Vasey. He was an Austrian Swiss German Travelling Fellow in 1988. He then did a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where he worked with Drs Cofield, Morrey and Chao in the Orthopaedic Department and in the Biomechanics Laboratory. Back in Geneva he received his Privat Docent in 1993 and became Professor and Chair of the Division of Orthopaedics of the University Hospitals of Geneva in 1998. He is also Director of the Department of Surgery.

Over the past years, Dr Hoffmeyer has published numerous book chapters and over two hundred papers in foremost journals of the specialty, including International Orthopaedics, JBJS American and British, Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, Journal of Biomechanics, Journal of Biomaterials, Injury, Clinical Orthopaedics or Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique. He sits on the editorial board of many major journals.

He is currently Immediate Past President of the Swiss Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, on the Board of Directors of the AO Foundation, and Vice-President of EFORT. He is a member of many national and international specialty societies. Dr Hoffmeyer is the current SICOT National Delegate for Switzerland.

He is married to Susanne and has three children, Céline, Francis and Alix, and two grandchildren, Aelia and Baptiste. He enjoys travelling, culture, sailing and skiing.
   

Frédéric Picard (United Kingdom)
Is Computer Assisted Total Knee Surgery Mainstream?

The basic research of Dr Picard and his colleagues at the University of Grenoble in the nineties have been the fundaments for the technical constructions of the first routine CT free knee navigation system for TKA. Without his research and clinical input, the implementation of this new technology would not have been possible.

His original research and contributions have placed him at the top of the international community of researchers in the area of CAOS.

He has shown an outstanding ability to translate surgical technique in three-dimensional procedure. His opinion is sought by others who are working on developing other computer-assisted surgical systems. He has been recognised as a “Lead User Developer of Radical Innovation in the Field of Medical Equipment Technology”. He also initiated one of the first books on computer assisted orthopaedic surgery – “Computer Robotic Assisted Hip and Knee Surgery” – published by the Oxford University press.

Dr Frédéric Picard received MD and master degrees in Grenoble University in France. He worked in Chicago (NWU) with David Stulberg, in Pittsburgh with Anthony DiGioia (CMU), in Paris (Ecole Centrale Paris/“Centrale Santé”). He is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Glasgow (Scotland) and has established a clinical research unit in which his team has produced significant research work on computer assisted knee and hip surgery.

In 2009 in Boston (United States), he received the Muller award, the highest recognition in Computer Assisted Surgery.
  

James Wright (Canada)
Evidence-Based Orthopaedics: What Does That Actually Mean?

Dr James G. Wright, as Chief of Perioperative Services at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, is responsible operationally for six surgical divisions (Cardiovascular, General, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic, Plastic and Urology) and five departments (Anaesthesia, Critical Care, Dentistry, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology). The Perioperative Services staff is engaged in highly complex clinical care, basic and clinical research, undergraduate and postgraduate education and numerous administrative responsibilities. Dr Wright is also the Surgeon-in-Chief, Department of Surgery.

Dr Wright is a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program. Research in this program focuses on the systematic study of characteristics of health and disease and outcomes of treatment modalities in children. Dr Wright’s research has focused on the development of measures to evaluate surgical therapy, randomised clinical trials, and evaluating unmet need and disparity in the use of orthopaedic procedures. Dr Wright is holder of the Robert B. Salter Chair of Paediatric Surgical Research. He has more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, including publications in Lancet, Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the British Medical Journal. In addition to his hospital and administrative activities, he is the Associate Editor for the Evidence Based Orthopaedic Section of the American Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and Chair of the Research Council for the Pediatric Society of North America.

Dr Wright is active in resident education, having won the Robert B. Salter Excellence in Orthopaedic Education Award in May of 1997 and, since 1994, he has served or is currently serving as primary or secondary supervisor for more than 30 MSc or PhD students.
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