Peds Fellows Week 2 Nemours AI DuPont

Great start to the week with another fantastic East Coast stop, this time semi-local for us both - just up I-95 to Delaware. Dr. Reid Nichols started the week with a lovely get together at her home with the Nemours team and some of the folks from the Shriners in Philly and CHOP who we will see later this week.

We spent time with Dr Nichols doing some foot and ankle cases on our first day with an entire room full of female orthopedic surgeons! Not bad representation for our 6% 😉 We also got to spend some time with Dr Franzone and Kruse in the OI multidisciplinary clinic with a huge spectrum of ages and involvement. Megan and I are both more than a little jealous of the gait lab and the cafeteria!

Dr Mackenzie shared his vast spectrum of knowledge on skeletal dysplasias while we discussed the nuances of growth modulation. Despite neither of us doing spine, we both had to admit that the thorascopic anterior spine release we saw was pretty cool too.

Thanks to the team at duPont for their warm welcome! The commitment to multidisciplinary care for highly complex patients is inspiring and definitely sets a high standard. We can see why the patients love it there.

We spent the next 3 days hopping from one hospital to another in Philly. Dr Joe Rosenblatt greeted us for coffee and indications conference at St Christopher’s. We had a good time in the OR observing a frame application for infantile tibia vara. Joe reviewed the TLHex program for preop and postop planning and correction including the new iphone app.

Next stop ... Shriners Hospital. Claire and I enjoyed learning about the history of the hospital. We were so intrigued by Dr Van Bosse’s techniques for capsularbreleases and gradual correction of knee flexion contractures. We asked lots of questions so Dr Van Bosse agreed to review his approach to hip, knee and foot contractures for arthrogrypotic patients in lecture format. We learned a ton about how to optimize function for this special group of patients. We continued our discussions at the lovely Van Bosse home over cocktails and appetizers. Mrs Van Bosse whippednup an amazing meal. The Davidson’s joined us for dinner and we shared stories about life, travels, family, and careers.

We ended the week at CHOP with a MAC tutorial and deformity planning. What an impressive hospital!