VCU Medical School News

By Gregory J. Golladay, MD

As with all programs, this year’s COVID-19 impact has been considerable for the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at VCU Health. We adapted. We shut down elective surgeries incrementally and incorporated telehealth into our outpatient clinics. We organized residents into teams and socially distanced for remote learning and meetings. We joined AAHKS in the FOCAL learning opportunity. We all learned how to use Zoom for meetings and didactics. We were a major part of the institutional effort to conserve and preserve PPE by developing a method for N95 mask decontamination and reuse, thanks in no small part to the fabrication skills of Dr. Kates and some handy helpers.

We have resumed near-normal elective surgical volumes while clinic volumes are still below baseline due to social distancing requirements. We have been fortunate to have been able to continue providing care to our community and to continue to educate our residents and fellows in what may be the “new normal” for an indefinite time. We plan to do virtual interviews for the coming residency and fellowship application period.

Dr. Tom Fischer of the Indiana Hand Center was our honored virtual speaker for our outgoing residents’ graduation June 19, 2020. We are proud of them and wish them well in their fellowships and on into practice. We welcomed an outstanding class of PGY-1 residents on July 1 and our two Adult Reconstruction fellows, a hand fellow, and a trauma fellow on August 1. We look forward to the shared opportunity to teach as well as to learn from them.

We continue to expand our faculty roster as well. David Cinats, MD has joined our trauma division, having completed training in trauma in Calgary, followed by a hand and microvascular surgery fellowship at Upstate Orthopaedics in Syracuse, NY. Robert, O’Connell, MD, starts September 1, after residency at VCU Health and Sports Medicine fellowship in Jackson, MS.

VCU Health and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery are also pleased to announce a new partnership with The College of William and Mary, where we will be providing team coverage as well as clinical care to the students and faculty. In addition, we are building a new Children’s Hospital, a new outpatient building on the main downtown campus, and anticipate opening our ambulatory surgery site at the NOW Center in Fall of 2021.