Dr. Armstrong received his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1972. His orthopaedic residency was done at the University of Toronto followed by a pediatric orthopaedic fellowship with Dr. Robert Salter at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Following his fellowship, in 1982, he joined the orthopaedic staff at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto but spent the first two years doing orthopaedic research at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1991, he then became Chief of Staff of Shriners Hospitals for Children Intermountain (Salt Lake City). In 2000, he was selected as Chief Medical Officer of the 22 Shriners Hospitals and moved to the Headquarters in Tampa. At the end of June 2012, he became the Chief Medical Officer – Emeritus.
Dr. Alman is the Distinguished James R. Urbaniak Professor and Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University. He was born in Philadelphia and studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Medical School, Pennsylvanian Hospital, and Tufts University before undertaking a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Orthopaedics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. After three years back in Boston at the New England Medical Center he returned to a faculty position at the Hospital for Sick Children, where he subsequently was appointed the A. J. Latner professor and Chair of Orthopaedics and Vice Chair for research for the Department of Surgery of the University of Toronto. Three years ago he relocated to Duke University. While in Toronto he helped develop and implement a competency based orthopaedic residency curriculum, the first of its kind. Dr. Alman has an active clinical practice focusing on the care of children with pediatric orthopaedic problems including tumors, congenital deformities, spinal deformity, syndromes, muscular dystrophies, and trauma.
Dr. Bae is an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in the pediatric upper extremity. His clinical research focuses on a spectrum of conditions involving the hand and upper limb in children. After completing fellowships in both pediatric orthopaedics and hand surgery, he now serves as full-time clinical associate at Children’s Hospital Boston and care for a variety of congenital, traumatic, neuromuscular, and sports-related conditions of the upper limb. He also provides on-call care for general pediatric trauma patients as well as hand injuries requiring microvascular reconstruction.
In addition to his patient care responsibilities, He is actively involved in clinical research. He serves as co-PI of a multicenter prospective registry of congenital differences of the hand and upper limb, PI of a clinical registry of pediatric distal radius fractures focused on improving value-based care, and PI of a new multicenter effort looking at osteochondritis dissecans of the elbow.
He is committed to orthopaedic education, and currently serves as co-director of the Harvard Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship, site director for the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program, and Chair of the annual International Pediatric Orthopaedic Symposium.
Jon R. Davids. MD is a board certified Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon, who is the Assistant Chief of Orthopaedics and Medical Director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Northern California; and Professor and Ben Ali Chair in Pediatric Orthopaedics in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of California Davis Medical School in Sacramento, California, USA.
Jon has published and lectured extensively at regional, national and international levels, teaching gait analysis interpretation and clinical applications for children with cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia, and limb deficiency. He is also an active member of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons (ABOS), Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA). Jon serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics and Gait & Posture.
Dr. Oetgen joined the faculty at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC in 2009 after completing the Dorothy and Bryant Edwards Fellowship in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and Scoliosis at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Texas. He became division chief in 2015, and now leads development of innovative programs that streamline care for children with complex orthopedic needs. He has a clinical interest and expertise in pediatric spinal deformity, early onset scoliosis, and pediatric cervical spine pathology. Under his leadership, Children’s National created the Spinal Fusion Surgical Home, the first of its kind in the U.S. focused specifically on pediatric patients. The program has led to significant decreases in average length of stay and patient pain scores for children with idiopathic scoliosis. Dr. Oetgen has authored more than 70 peer reviewed publications and book chapters and presented at many major conferences domestically and internationally. He is an active research scientist in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National and a principal investigator on several grant-funded studies. He is an associate professor of pediatrics and orthopaedics at the George Washington University. In 2017, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and in 2020 became the Education Council Chair. Dr. Oetgen completed his medical training at Georgetown University and orthopaedic residency at Yale University, and also holds three master’s degrees, including a Master’s in Business Administration from George Washington University.
Todd Ritzman, MD is Director of Education of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Akron Children’s Hospital, Surgeon Director of The Austen Bioskills Lab at Akron Children’s Hospital, and Co-Director of the combined Cleveland Clinic / Akron Children’s Hospital Pediatric Orthopedic Surgical Fellowship. He attended medical school at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed orthopedic residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Pediatric Orthopedic & Scoliosis Fellowship at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. He is an active member of the AOA, AAOS, and POSNA and has a clinical and research interest in pediatric spinal deformity. Dr Ritzman is the founding Course Director of the Annual Akron Pediatric Orthopedic Resident Review Course, a comprehensive didactic and cadaveric surgical skills course which hosts 120 residents annually.
Jonathan Schoenecker, MD, PhD is an orthopaedic surgeon-scientist dedicated to caring for adults and children with orthopaedic trauma and hip conditions, educating future surgeon-scientists, and conducting high impact translational research. His unique focus stems from his surgical training in musculoskeletal diseases in combination with his basic science training in biochemistry, coagulation, and vascular and musculoskeletal biology. The overarching theme of his clinical and basic science research program is to determine the biological mechanisms by which musculoskeletal tissue responds to and recovers from tissue injury. This ‘acute phase response’ is not only essential to prevent exsanguination and infection, but is also a key regulator of tissue repair following injury. Dysfunctional acute phase responses, such as in patients with severe trauma, are significant causes of morbidity and mortality following traumatic musculoskeletal injury, such as bleeding, thrombosis and pathologic wound repair. He is completely dedicated to a career as a surgeon-scientist, improving patients’ lives with surgery and highly translational research.
Stephen Schwartz currently serves as the Executive Director of AO North America, a non-profit organization serving the educational, research, and career needs of North American musculoskeletal surgeons. He is also President of GDS Consulting Services, LLC., specializing in the areas of professional medical education, marketing, and medical humanitarian initiatives. As Executive Director of AO North America, he works closely with top orthopaedic and spine specialties to provide the highest quality educational and programmatic support for them and their colleagues. His work with AO North America also has resulted in a close working relationship with the AO Foundation. He has extensive experience in the medical device marketplace primarily as a result of his 32-year career with Synthes Inc. He worked in a variety of Executive Management positions including a 12-year tenure as Senior Vice President. He currently serves on the Boards of several non-profit organizations.
Dr. Tompkins is Board Certified in Orthopaedic Surgery and joined the staff of the Spokane Shriners Hospital in September 2007. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Tompkins completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency at the Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, New York followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Orthopaedics at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Because of his interests in information technology, Dr. Tompkins has served on the Internet Committee and Technology Oversight Committee of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America since 2007. His interests include spine, gait abnormalities, hip preservation, sports medicine, and general pediatric orthopaedics.
