January 1999 AAOS Report
Board receives scope of practice, volunteer reports
The Academy Board of Directors, meeting in Chicago Dec. 4-5, 1998,
received the report of the Task Force on Expanding the Scope of
Practice with eight recommendations ranging from education to
practice expansion. The board referred the recommendations to
various committees and organizations. Michael H. Graham, MD,
chairman of the task force, said it came to consensus on two key issues.
First, "continued specialization in orthopaedics can provide high quality
care for patients, but current trends toward specialization can have
an unwanted outcome: an excess of highly trained surgeons with not
enough work to do in their specialty areas. The willingness and
ability to provide alternative nonsurgical orthopaedic care can
reverse the trend towards a 'surgical technocracy.'" Second,
"despite this danger, orthopaedists need to maintain finely
honed skills for their continuing surgical care." The Task
Force on Volunteer Orthopaedic Care, chaired by
John J. Callaghan, MD, also presented a report that reviewed
some of the impediments to providing volunteer medical services in the U.S.,
principally the professional liability issue. The task force made a
number of recommendations ranging from establishing a database of
free clinics where physicians could volunteer their services to
identifying and publicizing academic programs that utilize
retired or semi-retired physicians in staffing clinics.
The board referred the recommendations to the Committee on
Committees to establish an oversight panel to coordinate
implementation of the recommendations. The board also
approved nominees to the American Board of
Orthopaedic Surgery: A. Herbert Alexander, MD; James A. Nunley II, MD;
Peter J. Stern, MD; and
Marc F. Swiontkowski, MD.