Page 6 - Rochester Medicine | 2019 Volume 1 | University of Rochester Medical Center

Building on a Solid Foundation:
Biopsychosocial Medicine
The challenges ahead may be daunting, but
the Department of Orthopaedics seems to
have an answer that is deeply rooted in the
University of Rochester’s past. Its vision is
not only to grow and expand capacity, but
to carry forward a tradition of orthopaedic
innovation, guided by UR’s legacy of biopsy-
chosocial medicine.
According to Rubery, responding to
America’s changing health needs is as much
about the perception of the discipline as
it is about growth. “As we prepare for the
next evolution, Orthopaedics will have to
fundamentally redefine its role in the delivery
of clinical care, research, and physician
education,” Rubery says.
To understand why Orthopaedics is
forging a new direction, consider the
old-saw stereotype it’s up against. As the Department of Orthopaedics Chair Paul T. Rubery, MD (Flw ’98), left, with fellow spine surgeon
International Journal of Surgery puts it, Emmanuel N. Menga (MD ’09).
the traditional view of orthopaedics is a
profession dense with “old boys’ clubs,
rugby jocks, and an unthinking, non- and in collaboration with primary care Carrying on the Traditions
holistic approach to patient care.” To a practices and schools in the community. of Innovation
casual observer in decades past, the specialty Just as important, they recognize the value The Department of Orthopaedics has
sometimes looked like a sideline business not of what they do—restoring and preserving been prolific and creative in developing
integrated with the field of medicine as movement—to an individual’s overall health, new approaches that focus on promoting
a whole—more a piecework, body-part emotional outlook, and ability to contribute wellness, preventing injury, and positively
repair shop. to their family, workplace, and community. impacting population health. In just the last
“If orthopaedics was ever that, it isn’t Michael D. Maloney, MD (Res ’97), five years, it has claimed global leadership
anymore. And especially not here,” says division chief of Sports Medicine, treats in using the Patient-Reported Outcomes
David J. Mitten (BS ’88, MD ’92, Res ’97), athletes of all ages, as well as patients he Measurement Information System (PROMIS)
professor of Orthopaedics and director of calls “occupational athletes”—adults who tool to improve patient-provider communi-
the UR Health Lab, which explores new may never have picked up a bat or struck a cation and deliver better, more cost-effective
uses for technology in medicine. “This soccer ball, but who battle arthritis or injury care. It’s explored a new avenue for helping
department passionately believes in biopsy- to stay in the larger, more essential game at-risk student athletes by pairing traditional
chosocial medicine, a philosophy that of life. performance training with life-skills
sees the patient as a whole person—body, “People need to move to stay healthy, to coaching, nutritional counseling, and
mind, and spirit—within the context of a make a living, to function in their families academic support.
family unit and a social environment that and the community,” Maloney says. “My It has tested the potential of biologic
profoundly affect health and well-being. colleagues in other divisions, and our treatments to foster healing and promote
Our physicians, clinical staff, researchers, entire Sports Medicine team, are seeing joint health. And it has researched and
and students closely collaborate to explore people of all ages challenged by musculo- delivered a new option for end-stage arthritis,
new technologies, new treatments, and new skeletal issues—from young people who making URMC the first in the nation to offer
ways to deliver health care to a population are specializing in one sport and sustaining synthetic cartilage for the most common
that sorely needs it—at a time when patient preventable injuries they’ll carry with them form of foot arthritis, and one of five
demand already outstrips provider supply.” all their lives, to older adults who want to academic medical centers to test the device’s
To that end, the department’s profes- stay active and push their bodies and bones efficacy in treating thumb arthritis.
sionals work in close partnership with other to the limit, to people living into their 90s
specialties at the Medical Center, whose joints wear out and need to stay
mobile to preserve their health.”

3 ROCHESTER MEDICINE | 2019 – V1