Volume 11 • Issue 2 • Summer 2021
No Bones About it
It’s Time to Catch Up
Manuel Molina, MD, President As the saying goes, “the summer just flew by.” Starting with the end of the West Virginia Orthopaedic Society (WVOS) Spring Break Meeting at Stonewall in April, the new officers and board members introduced themselves again and began working for the common promotion of the membership of our society. In May, the AAOS promoted a week of advocacy for issues in orthopaedics that culminated in a tremendous exposure to our Congressional delegation in Washington as well as fundraising for OrthoPac. The Academy’s directive for our members to speak to our elected officials on the topics and proposed bills that included streamlining prior
In This Issue:
authorization, advancing and continuing telehealth medicine and seeking sponsorship and support for the Lorna Breen Act that proposes to enhance physician mental health. We had the opportunity to meet with our Members of Congress and Senators and their staff to plead our case and to seek their added support on these bills. We also used the time during these virtual connections to seek continued help with the statewide crisis of opioid addiction and its by products. We continue to hold our Journal Club meetings on a monthly basis by virtual means with CME credit. The sponsored meetings have become an added benefit to membership in the society with ranging topics that can be educationally focused as well as broader discussions on issues relating to orthopaedic care such as the importance of cyber security and our most recent topic of career paths in orthopaedics. The continuation of topics to be chosen for the future starting in October will be reviewed and proposed by our new CME
Catch up
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• President’s notes: It’s Time to Catch Up • WVAOE 2022 Meeting Planning Underway • Remembering Three Friends • Oliashirazi Elected to Hall of Fame • Emery Recognized, Honored by AOA • Councilor’s Report • Issues We’re Taking to Congress • Sraj’s WVSMA Presidential Address
By WVAOE President Antoinette SumersFelix Cheung, MD
2022 Meeting Planning Underway
“We want to continue honoring Josh and encourage everyone to make a contribution to his annual
The WVAOE Board of Directors met in late August to discuss events of the last year and make plans for the coming year. All present lamented our inability to host a spring meeting in 2020 or 2021. Plans for 2022 will focus on dealing with a crisis, while understanding benchmarking of your current efforts. WVAOE’s founding president David Proctor, MBA, ATC, will discuss “how to keep the doors open when there are no doors,” based on his experiences in the U.S. Virginia Islands with two Category 5 hurricanes in 2017. He’ll share how he worked to keep the doors open and the physicians treating patients. We will be hosting a speaker from the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE) who will focus on the topic of
benchmarking specifically for orthopaedic practices. More details will be coming soon. President Antoinette Summers recapped the awarding of the 2021 Josh Tuck Memorial Scholarship. “We want to continue honoring Josh and we encourage everyone to make a contribution to this scholarship. Contact Diane Slaughter at the WVAOE office to make a donation. In addition to the valuable information being shared at the 2022 meeting, Summers announced WVAOE will conduct an election of officers and board members for April 2022 to April 2024. All members in good standing are eligible, but are not required to follow the example of Chad Fisher and Clint Welch, below, of arm wrestling for the office in which you are interested.
scholarship.” - Antoinette Summers WVAOE President President Antoinette Summers announced elections will take place at the Spring 2022 meeting. Current WVAOE Vice President Chad Fisher, left, and WVAOE Treasurer Clint Welch have already planned their campaign strategies...arm wrestling!
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By WVOS/WVAOE Executive Director Diane Slaughter, CAE, APR, Fellow PRSA
Remembering Three Friends Ramanathan “Padman” Padmanaban, MD passed away in May of 2021 at the age of 70. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. Padman was born on June 12th, 1950, in Paganeri, India into humble beginnings. He attended Madurai Medical College. He married Manonmani Padmanaban in 1978 and they had three sons. He moved to the US, where he finished orthopaedic education at Columbia and Howard. He established himself in Logan, where he faithfully and loyally served the community for 36 years. Though he suffered many hardships in the last year of his life, he was unflappable and still intending to maintain certification in his field. Padman is survived by his wife, Mano, his three sons and one grandson. Gurdev Purewal, MD, 82, an accomplished orthopedic surgeon in the Weirton Area for over forty years, passed away in June 2020. Dr. Purewal was born in Kalewal in northern part of
India, the youngest of five siblings. He attended medical school at Government College Medical School at Amritsar, India. After graduating, he started his orthopedic residency, during which time he married his wife, Surinderit. He later trained for three years at the Royal Orthopedic Hospital in Birmingham, England. He came to the United States in 1975, along with his wife and three children, where he did a residency at Hamot Medical Center in Erie, PA, and then moved to Weirton in 1977. Dr. Purewal was the Past President of the WMC MedicalDental Staff and a past member of the WMC Board of Trustees. He also was a Past President of the Weirton Rotary Club, and a 2018 inductee into the Weirton Hall of Fame. He is survived by his wife, Surinder Purewal, two sons and a daughter, all of whom are MDs, five grandchildren and his sister. David Santrock, MD, passed in August 2021. He was born August 22, 1941 in Charleston, and is survived by his wife, Linda, life-long partner, high school sweetheart and best friend; three sons and daughters-inlaw and six grandchildren. Remember
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“We will miss their knowledge, involvement and friendship.” - Manuel Molina, MD WVOS President
By Maggie Hatfield, originally published in West Virginia Executive magazine
Oliashirazi Elected to Hall of Fame
“There are very few professions in life that allow an individual to mix technical skills and intellectual challenge with kindness and compassion.” - Dr. Ali Oliashirazi
It is said that the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Ali Oliashirazi, M.D., professor, chair and residency program director of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Marshall University, believes to his core that this is what he was meant to do with his life. Oliashirazi received his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Riverside and attended medical school at George Washington University, where he graduated class valedictorian. Once he found his passion, he completed his training in orthopaedic surgery at Mayo Clinic. “My passion is joint replacement surgery, with knee replacement surgeries being my most favorite operation to perform,” he says. “There are very few professions in life that allow an individual to mix technical skills and intellectual challenge with kindness and compassion.” Since arriving in West Virginia 19 years ago, Oliashirazi has made great strides in caring for and educating Mountain State residents. He founded the orthopaedic surgery department at Marshall University in 2004 and was instrumental in the creation of the school’s orthopedic surgery residency program. “The biggest challenge was paving an uncharted path for 4
the school and the Huntington community to develop an academic orthopaedic group,” he says. “This was during a time when orthopaedic surgeons were leaving our state and it was very difficult to recruit, so we decided to start our own training program to grow our own.” The effort to grow the department and launch a residency program included a tall order—recruiting excellent surgeons who were also excellent teachers. Despite the uphill battle, Marshall’s orthopaedic surgery residency program was the first of its kind to gain approval in over a decade and received accreditation on its first attempt. Today, the university has every orthopaedic subspecialty represented, including the ones most difficult to find: pediatric orthopaedics, orthopaedic spine surgeons and orthopaedic oncologists. In 2019- 2020, Marshall’s program was ranked in the 97th percentile nationwide. “We have residents who originate from all over the country, including California, New York and Florida, and 41% have stayed in one of our institutions in the tri-state after they finished their training,” says Oliashirazi. Today, Oliashirazi’s primary job is to set the strategy of the department and develop its architecture, which includes recruitment and retainment. Oliashirazi
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By WVU School of Medicine News
Emery Recognized, Honored by AOA The American Orthopaedic Association announced its 2021 Distinguished Award Winner recipients during the Opening Ceremony of the 2021 Virtual AOA Annual Leadership Meetings in June. Sanford Emery, M.D., MBA, FAOA, professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics in the West Virginia University School of Medicine and director of Surgical Services, was presented with the 2021 Distinguished Clinician Educator Award. He was nominated by peers within the AOA for his leadership and accomplishments for his contributions to the specialty. A press release from the organization chronicled his achievements. Emery was presented the award for his achievements training medical students, graduates, residents and other health professionals. He has been in the active practice of orthopaedic surgery for the last 33 years, and sub-specializes in adult spine surgery. Emery is a past president of the AOA (2017). Emery’s career demonstrates a commitment to excellent orthopaedic education. Over the course of his time at WVU, Dr. Emery grew the department from five to 39 full-time faculty, established a resident research program and fostered a significant increase in both funding and productivity of
basic and clinical research in orthopaedics. He has more than 70 publications, 34 book chapters, one textbook and has been invited to present his work on more than 200 occasions at local, regional, national and international meetings. In addition to his dedicated leadership to the AOA, Emery’s leadership roles include serving as president of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Cervical Spine Research Society. He has sat on several leadership committees in his institution, including the University Health Associates Board of Directors. He is an esteemed member of several professional medical societies including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, North American Spine Society, Scoliosis Research Society, Lumbar Spine Research Society and West Virginia Orthopaedic Society. In his virtual acceptance speech, Dr. Emery expressed his gratitude to colleagues, mentors, residents, fellows and his family for their influence on him, both personally and professionally. To close, he shared a pearl of wisdom developed over the course of a dynamic career as an orthopaedic educator. “The take home for the next generation of young leaders is the necessity of change in almost everything we do, but particularly relevant in medical education,” he said. 5
WVAOE “The take is home...is honoring the Joshua necessity Tuck’s of legacy change with in a scholarship. almost everything You can we contribute do, but to keep particularly this going for relevant the future! in medical education.” - Dr. Sandy Emery
By AAOS Councilor Joe Prud’homme, MD
Councilor’s Report
Did you know you can apply to serve on an AAOS BOC committee, even though you’re not a Councilor? Visit aaos.org for details.
I write this sitting at home shaking with fever and chills due to COVID-19, compliments of my travel to the AAOS meeting in San Diego last week. Despite the obvious negative consequences, it was great to see my friends and colleges in person after 18 months of virtual meetings. The energy of the crowd is definitely a motivating factor for me. The meeting was smaller than usual with lots of new faces, but still very productive. We heard from political pundits and from the whole AAOS presidential line. We previewed our advocacy topics for the NOLC. In brief, the issues will be blocking planned Medicare pay cuts, making telehealth payments and requirements permanent after the pandemic, prior authorization relief and physician mental health. Some time was spent introducing us to the new “Bone Beat” podcast series. An upcoming issue will be oriented specifically toward resident issues such as business of medicine topics. I was impressed with the high quality of these podcasts. We heard reports from each BOC committee chair. (Did you know that you may request to be on a BOC committee even if you are not a BOC member?) We discussed each state grant given. Several were for digital content/digital libraries like ours at WVOS. Podiatry scope of practice issues are a big deal in many states and generated significant discussion. The BOC 6
has a searchable library on this and most other state issues topics which members can access if they are confronted with a new issue and want to benefit from the past experiences of other states which have been through it. Finally, we discussed the process by which the BOC monitors member comments, provides member feedback, and injects real world practicality into the regularly updated AAOS Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG), and Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) publications. I am a member of this committee, the BOC Research and Quality Committee. Through this committee I was placed on the work group to update the recently published CPG for Distal Radius Fractures, which I helped author. I would like to encourage everyone to look at the open committee positions on the AAOS website. You can often find listings of open positions under the “Today’s News” posts on www.wvos.org. The applications are simple and it is a great way to get involved. Finally I want to congratulate West Virgina for being #9 on the list of states with the highest percentage of OrthoPac members (15%). If we can get even 10 more people to give a little, it can be 50 bucks, we would likely make the top five! We head to DC in three short weeks for the NOLC. More news then.
By AAOS Councilor Joe Prud’homme, MD
Issues We’re Taking to Congress The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) hosts an annual conference in Washington, DC, focusing on legislative issues of importance to the practice of orthopaedics. The National Orthopaedic Leadership Conference (NOLC) involves several days of educational sessions and one day of “Hill visits.” During these visits, members of the WVOS delegation seek to meet with all five members of Congress, or their senior health legislative staff to discuss our issues. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the WVOS leadership has decided to offer our Congressional representatives the opportunity to meet with us on Zoom on September 28. We plan to discuss several issues, including: • Impending Medicare payment cuts; • HR 3173, Improving Senior’s Timely Access to Care Act (prior authorization reform;
• HR869, the RISE Act, related to COVID-19 research funding; and • ssues of importance to West Virginia, including electronic health records and the opioid issue. Attendees will depend on the date and time of each meeting, but the following WVOS representatives will be participating in these meetings: • President Manny Molina; • Vice President Shafic Sraj; • Secretary Treasurer Ryan Murphy; • Immediate Past President Felix Cheung; • Resident Board Member Galen Berdis, M.D.; • Advocacy Chairman Ret Topping, M.D.; • AAOS Councilor Joe Prud’homme, M.D.; and • Executive Director Diane Slaughter, CAE, APR.
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WVOS representatives will be discussing several issues with our Members of Congress.
By Shafic Sraj, MD
Sraj’s WVSMA Presidential Message
“We connect better across the state than across the street.”
Editor’s note: The following is the text used by Dr. Shafic Sraj when becoming president of the West Virginia State Medical Association in August 2021. Physician Unity Moves Medicine Through Diversity and Inclusion Thank you, President Gee, for taking the time to join us today. Your kind words only show your commitment and support to us, the physicians of your beloved state. Thank you, Dr. Hall, for guiding the association through a year of uncertainty, a time when we were not sure what was happening next. I will seek your guidance as we find our way forward. I thank my wife and two boys, without whom none of what I do is meaningful or fun to do. I thank all of you for being here, for being the living proof that organized medicine is alive and kicking, that our physician voice continues to be loud and clear. I believe you share my excitement to get together and make up for our lost time this past year. I am happy to see many familiar faces, and excited to meet many new ones. I look forward to knowing you in person. Our West Virginia State Medical Association is over 150 years old. That is a long time, time that was filled with challenges, opportunities, achievements and compromises. Our physician-led 8
Association was built by many generations of West Virginia physicians who contributed to the wellbeing of our profession and our communities. That’s the legacy we have today. Our State Medical Association was created to reflect the physicians of West Virginia and it has always done so. We, the physicians of West Virginia, like many physicians in other states, have been going through a phase of reawakening, trying to figure out how we see ourselves and what we stand for. It is a phase of uncertainty, a time during which we look inside and try to understand what makes us who we are and where we want to be. Young physicians are increasingly employed and care less about coding and overhead expenses, and more about autonomy and family Inaugural More on page 9
WVU President administers the oath of office to WVSMA President Shafic Sraj.
Inaugural More from page 8 time. They are concerned less about running a practice and more about being part of a healthcare system. Young physicians get more CMEs in specialty-specific meetings than in general state meetings, and when they show up, they do so because they have something to say and do, not to hear about subjects that may be barely relevant to their specialized practices or topics they can find on their own. This phase of rediscovery creates confusion and disruption; some may even consider it an identity crisis in organized medicine, as physicians start challenging certain givens that were handed to us by previous generations. Such disruption, a constructive disruption, eventually leads to a new understanding of our needs and wants, and what it takes to achieve them. Some may prefer the status quo, and others may prefer to watch from the sidelines. We are neither. We recognize that change is our only given, and that inaction is a slippery slope that leads to failure. It is upon us to bridge the gap between tradition and change and lead ourselves and those we care about to a new equilibrium, an equilibrium where we have a better chance to shape what we do, take care of each other, and defend our communities from sub-par healthcare. We have changed over the years: Nowadays, we identify ourselves based on our expertise, not where we practice. We group ourselves across medical fields instead of county lines. It’s what we do
“Some may prefer the
Outgoing WVMSA President Brad Hall Introduces Shafic.
status quo, and
that defines us, not where we do it. We communicate with our distant same-specialty peers more than our neighborhood colleagues. We connect better across the state than across the street. This is the reality that we live in. Such reality raises two critical questions for us to answer: Do we, the West Virginia State Medical Association, in our current form, continue to reflect the physicians of West Virginia the way we intend to? How do we translate this reflection in today’s world? When I face heavyweight questions like these, I start at the beginning: Our Constitution. Our Constitution tells us that our purpose is “to federate and bring into one compact organization the entire medical profession of the State of West Virginia.” It adds, a little later, “to secure the enactment and enforcement of just medical laws; promote the general welfare of the profession; and Inaugural
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others may prefer to watch from the sidelines. We are neither.”
“Our purpose is and has always been to employ the strength of our physician unity to move medicine through diversity and inclusion.”
Inaugural More from page 9 … enlighten and direct public opinion.” What does it mean to have one compact organization that promotes the welfare of our profession? How do we translate our purpose in today’s language? To put it in modern terms, federating one compact organization refers to physician unity, and the entirety of the medical profession translates to physician diversity and inclusion. And, of course, promoting the welfare of our profession means moving medicine in the direction that allows us to do what we do best: to take care of our patients and our communities. Our purpose is and has always been to employ the strength of our physician unity to move medicine through diversity and inclusion. Let us go a little further back in time, to Feb. 28, 1867, the day the Official Call was distributed to establish our Association and addressed “To the Medical Profession in West Virginia.” It started with this: “As a means of elevating the standard of Practical Medicine and Surgery in West Virginia— and to render quackery odious, as it deserves, the want of State Medical Organization is severely felt…”. It later described the importance of physician engagement within their communities “to mark the difference between the true and false - the intelligent physician and the murderous pretender.” The Call emphasized that such “organization would necessitate interchange of 10
opinion on subjects connected with the different branches of the profession.” They called upon physicians across various specialties to get together and fight against medical misinformation and the insufficiently trained healthcare providers of their day. Isn’t this what we are trying to do today? Some things never change! The values and processes of medical associations, including ours, developed over many decades to reach today’s level of maturity. Our physician identity and priorities took a different path and evolved and diversified rather quickly over just one generation, faster than what many associations could keep up with. This diversion between the two made it harder for countless physicians to identify with legacy organizations and eventually allowed a gap to emerge and grow in between. In the past, physicians joined their professional organizations almost unconsciously. It was part of who they were - there was no doubt about it. Some of you may remember when I addressed our Council a few years ago and described the ‘church model.’ If you go to church, you just go - no questions asked. WVSMA was the church for our senior colleagues and those before them. Today, with so many organizations and so many interests, the physician, especially the young physician, must ask a very simple, yet very powerful, question first: ‘WHY?’ This is the ‘theater model’- the attendee visits only Inaugural More on page 11
Inaugural More from page 10 when there is a good reason; when the show deserves watching or, even better, when they have a role to play. More and more physicians view annual meetings as shows and visit only when they are attractive and worth their time. In the past, the need for physicians to organize at the county level was a necessity. Back then, county medical societies were the only agents that collected local physician opinions, crystallized them, packaged them and sent them, along with their delegates, to State Medical meetings. County meetings were the only feasible method for physicians to aggregate physician thoughts and combine their asks. This was the case for a very long time. These days, the wealth of communication tools and ease of travel make this role obsolete, rendering most county medical society meetings pleasant traditions, not needs. Physician affiliation with healthcare systems, increasing physician employment and changing lifestyles and priorities have all combined forces and rendered those meetings unnecessary. County medical societies started bleeding members and many of them did not survive. Unfortunately, as we have learned earlier today, our governance, our whole organization continues to depend on an aging system that is unfortunately on life support due to its near absolute dependence on a dwindling number of active county medical societies. It is up to us to reconsider
how we conduct business, share knowledge and develop policy. We need to remodel our organization, from the ground up, starting with the foundations of our governance. We need to become more nimble, more responsive and much more efficient; we need to afford all West Virginia physicians the opportunity of representation and participation in governance and policymaking, irrespective of whether they have access to, or are affiliated with, a county medical society or not. It is time. We need to determine whether one weekend a year is enough to make policy and develop an agenda for a whole year, or whether a more fluid process will serve us better, a process that allows competent physicians to group around select issues that they understand, care about and are willing to advocate for. We need to allow them to step forward without the need to go through stiff, pre-prescribed procedures built around purely geographic representation. Such representation does not give enough weight to our fields of expertise and may be slowing or even blocking the participation of enlightened physicians. While some of us may be comfortable with the current setup and business as usual, we need to determine whether we provide a welcoming environment to those who joined us today for the first time, and those who are not with us but may consider visiting in the future. All they will give us is one chance, all Inaugural More on page 12 11
“We need to determine whether one weekend a year is enough to make policy and develop and agenda for a whole year.”
“I am not immune. You are not immune. No one is immune. Let’s keep that in mind.”
Inaugural More from page 11 we get is one chance, after which they will decide whether they are in or out. Will they develop, today, a sense of belonging and commit to be part of us or will they consider this weekend a once-in-a-lifetime experience and move on? We need more dialogue and communication within and outside our organization in order to break the oldwhite-men stereotype that has haunted medical associations for years. We need to provide and emphasize a highly visible and inclusive atmosphere where every physician in West Virginia has the opportunity, through our organization, to move medicine in the direction we see fit. We need to acknowledge our expanding interests and expertise, yet hold on to our core values and principles. We need to be better at reflecting our multidimensionality, yet continue to highlight our fundamental commitment to our profession. The practice of medicine is undergoing an evolution that is faster than we have ever experienced before. This evolution will not stop any time soon, and will continue to present us with challenges and opportunities. Challenges are everywhere. We have been talking about physician burn-out for years and started talking about physician wellness and physician mental health more recently. We just started looking at stigma, even though we live in the middle of it. We can talk about statistics all we want, but physician wellness and stigma are 12
personal matters, at the end of the day. It all comes down to the one physician who needs help, realizing that s/he needs help, seek the needed help and receiving the help they need with no barriers and no fears. Many of you know stories, and so do I. I knew a medical student who committed suicide - I was a medical student myself at the time. I know three physicians, on a first name basis, who fell into, and luckily recovered, from substance abuse disorder. I personally had times during which I lost contact with my purpose. Was it stigma that deterred me from seeking professional help? I was lucky and recovered without assistance, and, as a matter of fact, my desire for a higher purpose was the one big reason that led me to be here, with you, today. I am not immune, you are not immune, no one is immune. Let’s keep that in mind. For years, we have been bombarded with plenty of attempts to inappropriately expand the scope of practice for nonphysician providers. Independent practice, expanded prescriptive authority, and broadened privileges amongst other challenges weaken the reliability of our health care system and puts our most vulnerable patients at risk. Unfortunately, the current environment allows even more attempts, and we need to remain on the alert. This past year magnified one particularly difficult challenge; medical Inaugural
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Inaugural More from page 12 misinformation. It proved to be so much more powerful, devastating, and sometimes demoralizing, than we could have ever imagined. It opened our eyes to how important it is to not just know what to do, but how to deliver our messages on small and large scales, in effective ways. It never occurred to me the extent to which public health measures can be politicized. Opportunities are plenty, but we have to be very careful since many of them are accompanied by more challenges, as well as unintended consequences, that need to be identified and taken care of. Telecommunication and virtual meetings allowed us to connect in ways that weren’t imaginable just a few years ago. Telemedicine and telehealth solved some of our problems and allowed us to take care of our patients when they couldn’t come to us. But with them came the challenges of broadband access, physician licensing and potential disruptions in local healthcare delivery. Big data, machine learning, and informatics are foreign topics to many of us, but will touch us one way or another, sooner or later and can be opportunities and challenges simultaneously. These transformations present double-edged swords that can do as much harm as they can do good depending on how they are used. They all require continuous monitoring and careful navigation, and this is what WVSMA is here for. There is a lot that we can do to revitalize our organization
“It never occurred to me the extent to
Shafic Sraj giving inaugural address. but let us start with the basics. Let us start by reviewing our mission and vision and translate them into actions, so please join me and pull those cards in front of you and let us take a thoughtful and up close look at those statements. • Our Mission is clear: WVSMA advances health and promotes quality and safety in the practice of medicine in West Virginia. Let us continue to advance health and promote quality and safety by cultivating participation, seeking those with leadership skills and ambitions, and make sure they represent themselves the way they identify themselves. Let us find and lift those barriers that unintentionally hinder participation, and let us modernize our events to create new traditions that foster the education, collegiality and networking we always look for. • Our Vision is equally clear. Our vision is to serve as the Inaugural More on page 14 13
which public health measures can be politicized.”
“Let us strive to be a true reflection of West Virginia physicians across all dimensions, be it gender, age, medical training, race, religion, national origin or any other dimension you can imagine.”
Inaugural More from page 13 unified voice for the practice of medicine and the premier authority for evidencedbased health policy in West Virginia. Let us serve as the unified voice of medicine by having plenty of seats at our tables, for all those willing to take the time and put in the effort to promote quality and safety in the practice of medicine-- and then adding some more. WVSMA represents West Virginia’s physicians, all physicians, not just our own members; it represents our future members irrespective of their practice model, employment, specialty or location. Let us rebuild our West Virginian House of Medicine where every physician gets a seat, and every physician group gets a room, yet we all fit together and belong to the same household. Let us embrace a cultural change and reconfigure our governance such that individual physicians and physician groups find value under the umbrella of our organization. Let us strive to be a true reflection of West Virginia physicians across all dimensions, be it gender, age, medical training, race, religion, national origin or any other dimension you can imagine. If you are a West Virginia physician, you have a place with us. We need to make sure all West Virginia physicians know that such a place exists through robust communication and outreach efforts. Let us project our values outside our membership, past our annual meeting, and beyond our 14
Journal, and reach those who may someday become our future physician-leaders. Let us be the premier authority for evidenced-based health policy in West Virginia by finding more seats of our own at the other tables, and make sure we are listened to. We can and will become the premier authority by investing in our physician-leaders, and working with our stakeholders to build a force that can bridge the gap between physicians, administrators and lawmakers. Let us connect with strategic partners, and like-minded groups and invite them to join us as we move medicine in the right direction. Let us become the organization where tomorrow’s West Virginia physicians want to be. In this day and age, the West Virginia State Medical Association needs to reflect all of this and more. Let us rebuild our identity and reestablish our value through physician unity, diversity and inclusion. I am a believer that organized medicine is the way to go, but tomorrow’s organized medicine is not the one we were handed yesterday. Our show, the WVSMA show, can become more attractive to more physicians, but it must evolve with the times and stay relevant to current mindsets. We have learned that health comes from being whole, so Let us look at both and take care of our profession, organization and each other, in addition to those we serve. You are probably wondering, at this time: What I am going Inaugural
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Inaugural More from page 14 to do about all of this? So I am going to share my personal goals for this upcoming year: • My top priority, by far, is to modernize our governance. I would like to see our association develop into an efficient, representative and inclusive organization. It is a lengthy process, but it has already started. It actually started years ago when people like me realized that the current path was not sustainable, and I believe that we have reached critical mass, and that we can make this happen. But I cannot do this without you, all of you. We will continue developing our constitution and bylaws drafts until they are ready for your review. When we get there, I will call for a special meeting of the House of Delegates for the purpose of amending the bylaws, and follow it with a special open meeting for the Association to present the Constitutional amendments. If we do it right, we can get this done smoothly and efficiently, as we have learned from other associations who have done this before us. Please stay tuned because I need your help and I will ask for it. • I would like to democratize participation. Every member deserves the opportunity and support to build leadership skills through our organization. It starts right now by sharing all volunteer opportunities with all of you, so I ask you to tap into your sense of service and
sense of curiosity to explore the available committee vacancies. Our chairpersons, and myself, will make ourselves available and we will be happy to assist you and answer your questions. • I would also like to engage physicians who haven’t had the chance to know us closely. We cannot wait for, nor should we expect, physicians to just show up at our doors anymore. I will go to them where they are, on medical staffs and in specialty societies. I will also connect with our members regularly. One weekend a year doesn’t work anymore, and a flood of information followed by a long drought is not compatible with modern organized medicine. Let us have a stream of engagement, directed by our needs and wants. Don’t get me wrong, I am aware this will be hard. I will need a lot of help to do so, yet I am confident I have the help I need. I will judge my success by my ability to reflect and fulfill our purpose, mission and vision, while delivering value to our members and beyond. So, I call upon you, right now, to rediscover what unites us as we face our challenges and grasp our opportunities. Let us put our physician groups and specialties in the same room. Let us make it clear that all West Virginia physicians are welcomed, appreciated, invited and sought after. Let us take care of each other and take the lead to shape the future of our organization. Let us offer those who have not had the Inaugural More on page 16 15
“Let us keep a seat at the table, or risk being on their menu.”
Inaugural More from page 15 chance to join us a welcoming and inclusive environment. We cannot leave our future up to others, and we cannot just let them determine how we practice medicine. Let us keep our seat at the table, or risk being an item on their menu.
Thanks to those members of WVOS who attended lunch to support our own
I close by thanking our sponsors who helped make this event a reality; our staff who went beyond my furthest expectations to make it a success; and our young physicians and medical students for being here and getting ready to carry the torch in years to come.
A number of West Virginia Orthopaedic Society former presidents attending the WVSMA Healthcare Summit to witness Shafic Sraj becoming WVSMA President. They are, from left, Joe Prud’homme, Felix Cheung, Stan Tao, (current president) Manny Molina and Tony Majestro.
Dr. Shafic Sraj.
From left: AAOS Councilor Joe Prud’homme, President Manny Molina, WVSMA President/WVOS Vice President Shafic Sraj, Past President Stan Tao, Director Karim Boukhemis,Past President Tony Majestro and Advocacy Chair Ret Topping. Other WVOS members attending, but not pictured, include Immediate Past President Felix Cheung, Director Paul Legg and Matt Walker. 16
Oliashirazi More from page 4 “Simply put, our goal is to be the best at all that we do,” he says. “The best part of my position is making sure the right individuals are in the right positions and helping everyone advance and succeed to meet their own individual career goals.” When he’s not teaching or performing surgery, Oliashirazi can be found at Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Joint Replacement Center—where he has served as director for more than 15 years—furthering his impact on West Virginians through technological advances. “We are one of the most technologically advanced programs and one of the first in the country and the world to do computer-assisted orthopaedic surgeries and robotic orthopaedic surgeries,” he says. Oliashirazi believes he owes much of his success to his mother, who showed him the true meaning of kindness and grit. “We moved to the U.S. from Iran when I was 11 years old,” he says. “Despite not knowing the language and hitting some challenges, she was able to get back on her feet. I think the
compassion, hard work and grit I learned from her have helped propel me through challenges over the course of my life.” Of his many accolades, there is one that changed the trajectory of Oliashirazi’s life. “There is a framed report card in my study from eighth grade—the year I moved to the U.S. I did not speak English,” he says. “I used to regularly stay up well past midnight, translating words and phrases with my English-to-Persian dictionary so I could piecemeal the information together. I started with Cs and Fs and ended the last quarter with all As on that report card.” Oliashirazi and his family feel blessed to call Huntington, WV, home. “West Virginia gave us a home and an opportunity to make a difference and leave the world a little better than we found it,” he says. “The genuine, heartfelt and deep support are unparalleled. I tell everyone our community is magical, and I cannot imagine a more kind and compassionate place.”
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Simply put, our goal is to be the best at all that we do. - Dr. Ali Oliashirazi
These three men had a long history of involvement with and service
Remember More from page 3 He attended West Virginia University on a football scholarship and WVU School of Medicine, graduating in 1967. He completed his internship at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA, followed by two years of active duty, and his orthopedic residency at the University of Oklahoma, completing it in 1974. He began practice in Jacksonville, FL, for two years before he and Linda returned to West Virginia. His practice in Charleston continued until his retirement in 2007. He continued to practice as a volunteer for Health Right. He was a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic
to the West Virginia Orthopaedic Society and they will be remembered.
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Surgeons, the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the West Virginia Orthopaedic Society. Dave served as president of the West Virginia University Alumni Association and was a member of the WVU Athletic Council. His interests were first and foremost his family, plus bicycling, fishing and woodworking. He developed a passion for Habitat for Humanity in his retirement as a member of the Regular Wednesday volunteer crew. He also volunteered for a number of local organizations. Dave was a member of Aldersgate United Methodist Church.
Catch up More from page 1 chairmen Dr. Brett Whitfield and Dr. John Taras. BONUS INFO: Members of the WVOS should sign on and review a new feature on the WVOS website. The VIDEO LIBRARY, created by the great effort of our executive Director Diane Slaughter and funded by a grant from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, allows us to chronicle and store the educational topics such as those presented in our state meetings and journal clubs, as well as specialty topics such as COVID-19 briefings with experts from throughout the state. This feature allows our membership to review topics of interest on their own timeline with easy access utilizing the designated user name and password to be sent to the membership by early September. If anyone is in a specific hurry they can reach Diane Slaughter for their own access at any time. New content is added monthly! The new Board members met virtually in June to not only introduce themselves to the existing members and officers, but also to promote ideas to progress the work of the WVOS. The August meeting of the board and membership was held in person and proved to be a very enthusiastic group. We were grateful to have the attendance of several past presidents including our immediate past president Dr. Felix Cheung, as well as Drs. Stan Tao, Tony Majestro and Brett Whitfield. Covid-19 and 2020 presented many obstacles and, as a result, opened
up many opportunities for leadership to prevail. A quick summary of the West Virginia Orthopaedic Society summer board meeting with membership at The Greenbrier on August 20th reviewed the following: • Dr. Ryan Murphy, as treasurer, presented the finances of the society to be in good, strong standing consistent with increasing membership and a successful spring conference. • The President’s report discussed the continuation of providing the service of OrthoEvidence to our membership with a revised list of active participants. We feel very strongly that this is a educational benefit that impacts not only our community physicians but our academic physicians and our residents in training. • It was also reported that the Southern Orthopaedics Association will be hosting their national meeting at The Greenbrier in July 2022 and that we as a society will try to promote and assist their success. A symposium will possibly be given to West Virginia membership that would allow for presentations during this conference by our members, if so agreed. • Dr. Ret Topping, acting as Advocacy/Legislative chairman, discussed several issues pertaining to orthopaedics that would be possibly included in the next legislative Catch up More on page 20 19
WVOS has a new Video Library to chronicle and store our Journal Club, CME conference and member sessions online.
It was an honor for so many members to witness Dr. Shafic Sraj become president of the WV State Medical Association.
Catch up More from page 19 sessions and perhaps our potential influence with our representatives. • NOLC that is scheduled for September with the AAOS was discussed and it was agreed to participate in a virtual setting due to the potential problems with having in person meetings with our congressman this year. Our participation will be led by our AAOS counsilor Dr. Joe Prudhomme in our directive for his being most effective with our representatives. • Membership Chairman Dr. Vivek Neginhal discussed the continued streamliningof our membership roles and proposed ideas for expansion in the future. Information on planned events to encourage membership from our community will be released in the near future. • The board adjourned and fun was had by all. The next day, a number of our members attended the luncheon where our WVOS Vice President Dr. Shafic Sraj was installed as President of the West Virginia State Medical Association. You can see his full inaugural speech beginning on page 7. The 2022 WVOS Spring Break Meeting is scheduled fpr April 29 and 30 at Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, WV. The format for this coming year’s meeting will be much the same as last year, where we will make room for recreation on Friday early, have a reception Friday evening with a special 20
plan for that night to possibly include interesting cases in orthopaedics presentation. Saturday will begin with the general assembly meeting run very quickly and then the beginning of the didactic sessions for the remainder of the day. The theme for the meeting, as well as the topics to be covered, will be decided by the November board meeting with the assistance of the membership through email canvassing for ideas and recommendations that will start being released the first week of September. A final note: A few years ago I was at the Tamarack exhibition center when I came upon a sculpture by awardwinning West Virginia artist Burl Jones. It was a fisherman, in a stream, formed as a glass top table. It was eyecatching and impressive. But I was surprised by the likeness of the figure to that of Dr. David Santrock, a fellow West Virginia orthopaedist from Charleston. I learned later of the deep relationship that these two former WVU scholarship football players had. And that they would maintain this close friendship throughout their lives. Dr. Santrock was a true West Virginia product, born in Dunbar, WV, educated at WVU, got his medical degree and enlisted in the Navy serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. After fulfilling his commitment, he completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Oklahoma. He returned to West Virginia shortly after finishing Catch up More on page 20
Catch up More from page 20 his training to practice medicine in the Charleston area and continued to do so for over 30 years. He was well respected by his peers for his tremendous work ethic, his innovation and skill. He was loved by hospital coworkers as well as his office staff. Acknowledged for his leadership skills by the administrators of the facilities in which worked, Dr. Santrock retired in 2007. Too early, in my opinion, as well as that of many of his still-grateful patients who continue to remember him fondly to this day. He seemed to find that work/life balance we all wish we could, by sharing his life with a wonderful family, connecting with and caring for his friends,
and doing volunteer work for various causes during and particularly after he ended his very successful practice. He particularly loved the outdoors and often spoke of biking and fishing in his home state. I will always carry a memory of Dave in that isolated, peaceful fishing stream with a slight grin on his face. Dave Santrock passed away on August 20th. HE WILL BE MISSED. Most sincerely, Manny Molina, MD President, WVOS
One of our own has been memorialized in a beauiful work of art.
Burl Jones statue with Dave Santrock as model.
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President
Manuel Molina, MD Charleston, WV 304.343.4691 manmo99@aol.com
Consider contributing to Ortho PAC to help make your voice heard on issues of importance to orthopaedic medicine and
Vice President
Shafic Sraj, MD Morgantown, WV shaficsrajmd@gmail.com
Secretary-Treasurer Ryan Murphy, MD Morgantown, WV tmurphy@hsc.wvu.edu
Immediate Past President Felix Cheung, MD Huntington, WV 304.691.1262 cheungf@marshall.edu
At-large Members
Karim Boukhemis, MD Huntington, WV 25702 kboukhemis@scottorthopedic.com Paul Legg, MD Charleston, WV plegg@bonedoc.net Shari Cui, MD Morgantown, WV shcui@hsc.wvu.edu Dana Lycans, MD Huntington, WV lycans@marshall.edu Ereny Bishara, DO Charleston, WV ebishara1@yahoo.com
your patients! Help us get to the top five!
AAOS Councilor
Joseph Prud’homme, MD Morgantown, WV 304.293.2779 jprudhomme@hsc.wvu.edu
Advocacy Chairman
Richard (Ret) Topping, MD Elkins, WV retopping@yahoo.com
Membership Chairman Vivek Neginhal, MD Huntington, WV vneginhal@hotmail.com
Program Chairman
No Bones About It is published four times a year by the West Virginia Orthopaedic Society (WVOS). Manuel Molina, MD, President Diane Slaughter CAE, APR, Executive Director
Brett Whitfield, MD Princeton, WV bone_broke@yahoo.com
Ex Officio Members
Sanford Emery, MD, MBA Morgantown, WV semery@hsc.wvu.edu Ali Oliashirazi, MD Huntington, WV oliashirazi@marshall.edu Lunden Ryan, MD Morgantown, WV 304.293.1168 LeeAnne Torres, MD Huntington, WV 304.631.1262
WVOS reserves the right to determine suitability of advertisements and content. Correspondence regarding subscriptions and changes of address should be sent to: WVOS • PO Box 13604 • Charleston, WV 25360 (304) 984-0308 • wvos@frontier.com No Bones About It is a member service of the WVOS and may not be reproduced without permission. WVOS © 2021.
Executive Director
Diane Slaughter, CAE, APR, Fellow PRSA PO Box 13604 Charleston, WV 25360 304.984.0308 wvos@frontier.com
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