This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons holds third annual meeting
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
NEW ORLEANS — The American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons held their third annual luncheon. Members of the association are not only orthopedists of Latino descent, but also those who practice in areas with a highly concentrated Latino population.
Upcoming events
Ramon Jimenez, MD, president of the American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons (AALOS), began by announcing a symposium on orthopedic disparity that will be held on May 6 and 7 in Alexandria, Va.
Jimenez also informed attendees of a national symposium that will be held in Washington D.C. in October. He stated that he and fellow AALOS member Alberto A. Bolanos, MD are members of a steering committee that represents the “sole Latino input on this very important national summit on musculoskeletal disparity.”
He then discussed an upcoming mentoring program being co-sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Diversity Advisory Board and the Nth Dimension foundation, and asked other members to provide more information.
Melvyn A. Harrington, MD, responded, “It’s an 8-week program from June to the middle of August. Students are paired with mentors at sites across the country. They do clinical exposures and the goal is to do a research project. It culminates in a presentation of a poster at the National Medical Association meeting, which will be held in Orlando, July 31 to August 4.”
Keynote speaker
Robert Satcher, MD, PHD and NASA astronaut was the keynote speaker. He was the first orthopedic surgeon in space, and he showed a video displaying his skills working on the outside of the space station.
Satcher, who is African-American, also spoke of Jose Hernandez, a fellow astronaut who faced similar barriers and obstacles along their respective career paths.
“I felt very fortunate that he was in my class,” Satcher said. “He is a person who I take a lot of inspiration from, just in terms of the amount he had to overcome to get to that point, and that he never let his dreams be taken away from him.”
The importance of mentoring
Jimenez invited Raoul P. Rodriguez, MD, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Tulane University, to speak further on the importance of mentoring.
Rodriguez said his institution, with only three available openings and approximately 400 students applying for the residency program, has only one or two applicants of Latino descent.
“I think that mentoring should be done,” Rodriguez said. “I think the opportunity should be open for these young people to excel themselves, and [it is] something [in which] we all should be involved.”
Members needed
Jimenez stated that a membership drive is in effect, and asked current members for help in recruiting individuals for the organization.
Regarding next year’s AALOS luncheon, Jimenez said, “We hope to have an educational component to it, perhaps on how to market their practices to the rising Latino population.”
He stated that his own practice in San Jose, Calif. had expanded from one to five practitioners within 3 years of its opening.
“And that was because I made my practice open and amenable to the Latino population,” Jimenez said. “We all have that ability.”
- Reference:
American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons 3rd Annual Meeting. March 12, 2010. New Orleans.
