This week's sage, Dr. Sue Michovitz is a physical therapist and Certified Hand Therapist. She spent her career teaching masters and doctoral students, delivering clinical care, and participating in research. Since 2007, she has been an Adj. Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Program in Physical Therapy, Columbia University, New York City. Her previous university appointments were in Philadelphia, where she spent the majority of her career, and included the University of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University (now Drexel University) and Temple University. She has been a volunteer with Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation (GHHF) for medical and community outreach trips to Guatemala participated in 9 trips to Guatemala from 2007 through 2018.

She has served on the boards of the American Society of Hand Therapists (served as the 2013 President), the American Association of Hand Surgery (Affiliate Board Member) and the Kitchen Theatre, a regional equity actors theatre (Ithaca, NY). From 1995 to 2019 she was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Hand Therapy, most recently as an Associate Editor.

For her achievements and contributions as an educator, mentor and servant leader, Dr. Michlovitz has been awarded the following:

1. Clinician Teacher of the Year Award, American Association for Hand Surgery, 2003
2.  
3. Nathalie Barr Lectureship, American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT), 2008
4.  
5. Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association (FAPTA), 2018
6.  
7. The 2019 ASHT Lifetime Fellowship Award
8.  
9. Emeritus Membership, American Association for Hand Surgery, 2020

She presently lives in Camden, Maine where she is in her final year as an MFA student in Media Arts at Maine Media College. Her work is on photography and book arts.

This week's sage is Luis R. Schecker, MD. Dr. Scheker graduated from the University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and received his postgraduate training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in London, England and the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

He served as a Christine M. Kleinert Hand Fellow in 1982 and then as a Research Fellow with the Louisville Institute for Hand and Microsurgery. Dr. Scheker is currently associate clinical professor of surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive) at the University of Louisville and assistant consulting professor of surgery at Duke University.

He is co-editor of the book “The Growing Hand”. Dr. Scheker’s special interests include microvascular reconstruction, congenital anomalies, the carpometacarpal joint, the distal radioulnar joint and the proximal radioulnar joint. He has developed several techniques to preserve and to replace joints. He has created artificial joints to replace the Distal radio ulnar joint, the radio carpal/radio ulnar joint and the proximal radio ulnar joint of the forearm. He also has a basal joint of the thumb.

This week's sage Douglas Hanel M.D. is a professor in the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine at the University of Washington. He graduated from The University of Washington and The Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Following his training in Orthopaedic Surgery at Saint Louis University he completed fellowships in hand surgery with Harold E. Kleinert and microvascular surgery with Robert D. Acland at the University of Louisville. He served as Program Director for Orthopaedic Education for 24 years.

This week's sage Peter Stern graduated from Williams College, Washington University School of Medicine, and did his orthopaedic residency in the combined Harvard program. He did a hand fellowship in Louisville, KY. He has spent his entire professional career in Cincinnati and was Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1991-2013. He is past president of the AOA, ASSH, and ABOS. He has over 190 peer reviewed publications and have given over 45 endowed lectures. He has been a Deputy Editor of both JBJS and the Journal of Hand Surgery and served on the Board of Trustees of JBJS.  He has received both the Distinguished Clinician and Distinguished Contributions Award from the American Orthopaedic Association.

This week's sage Neil F. Jones MD, FRCS, FACS graduated from Trinity

College, Oxford and Oxford University Medical School.  He did his training

in general and orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery in England, becoming a

fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.  He completed a US residency in

plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Michigan under William

Grabb MD. He returned to England for further training at the Royal London and

St. Bartholomew’s Hospitals.  He completed his fellowship training in hand

surgery and microsurgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with

Richard Smith MD, Jesse Jupiter MD and James May MD.

After serving as Co-Director of the Hand Surgery-Microsurgery fellowship at the

University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Jones became Chief of Hand Surgery at Ronald

Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles (1993).  While at UCLA, Dr.

Jones was also Director of the UCLA Hand Surgery Fellowship Program with a dual

appointment as Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Professor of Plastic and

Reconstructive Surgery in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He left

UCLA in 2008 to develop hand surgery at the University of California Irvine and

served as Chief of Hand Surgery and Director of the Hand and Upper Extremity

Surgery and Microsurgery fellowship program. In 2019, Dr. Jones returned to

both the UCLA Medical Center and School of Medicine as a Distinguished

Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Distinguished Professor of Plastic and

Reconstructive Surgery. He is also a consultant in hand surgery and

microsurgery at Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles and Children’s Hospital of

Orange County.

Dr. Jones is nationally and internationally renowned for complex hand surgery

and microsurgical reconstruction of the upper extremity, with a major interest

in tendon transfers, congenital hand differences, toe-to-hand transfers and

microsurgical reconstruction of the upper extremity. His basic science research

has focused on experimental limb transplantation; tissue engineering of

vascularized bone and monitoring of the patency of microsurgical

anastomoses.  He has received the Sumner Koch Award by the American

Society for Surgery of the Hand on 3 separate occasions. He has authored or

co-authored over 275 papers and book chapters and given over 750 presentations

including being the visiting professor at more than 52 universities and

hospitals and the keynote speaker at national hand surgery and microsurgery

societies throughout the world. He has edited two books Microsurgical

Reconstruction of the Upper Extremity - Current State of the Art

(2008) and Operative Microsurgery (2016).

Dr. Jones also served as President of the American Society for Reconstructive

Microsurgery and President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. 

Tis week's sage Hill Hastings II, M.D. completed Orthopedic surgery training at Harvard University and practiced as a Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the Indiana Hand to Shoulder Center and Indiana University Medical Center from 1981 until his retirement to Telluride, CO in 2015. During his career, he helped train more than 200 fellowship hand surgeons, published over 100 chapters and articles, and delivered over 500 national and international presentations.

Dr. Hastings has special expertise in arthroscopy of the elbow and wrist; reconstruction and replacement surgery of the elbow, wrist and hand; fracture management; elbow and wrist reconstruction, and the treatment of paralytic upper extremity disorders. He contributed to the development of fracture repair systems for the clavicle, radial head, distal radius, wrist, and hand. He designed, in collaboration with the AO Hand Study Group, the AO Wrist Fusion Plate, the AO Distal Radius Plating System, parts of the AO Modular Hand Set, and the Phalangeal Percutaneous Screw Fixation System. He is co-inventor of the Discovery™ Elbow Replacement System (Zimmer/Biomet, DJO & Lima). Much of his research has centered upon the biomechanics and repair of PIP joint fractures and dislocations. He co-designed the Hemi-Hamate Resurfacing Arthroplasty. In 1994, he was awarded the Sumner L. Koch award by the Chicago Society for Surgery of the Hand and also the Emanuel B. Kaplan award by the New York Society for Surgery of the Hand for his investigations on the vascularity of the distal radius and vascularized techniques for bone grafting to the carpus. He co-developed the Lateral Collateral Preserving Approach to the Elbow for Release of Complex Contractures and a New Classification System for Primary Osteoarthritis of the Elbow.

He is a member of the AAOS, ASSH, ASES, and past member of the AO International Foundation and AOA. He has been awarded honorary memberships to the Canadian Hand Society, the Venezuelan Hand Society, and the Hellenic Society for Surgery of the Hand and served as a Medical Consultant for the USA Gymnastics National team.

In 1989, he represented the ASSH as the Sterling Bunnell Traveling Fellow. Dr. Hastings competed in three sports in college. He enjoys a number of outdoor activities including hiking and mountain climbing, horseback riding, skiing, biking, windsurfing/kite boarding, kayaking/stand up paddle boarding, photography and international travel with his family.

This week's sage:

Jesse Jupiter, MD, MA

Hansjörg Wyss AO Professor

Harvard Medical School

Visiting Orthopaedic Surgeon

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts

Biography

Jesse B. Jupiter, MD, MA is the Hansjoerg Wyss/AO Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard School of Medicine and emeritus director of the Hand and Upper Extremity service at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Jupiter graduated from Brown University Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Classics and was later inducted to the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame. He earned his MD at Yale in 1972.

In 1975, he began the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program. In 1980, Dr. Jupiter traveled to Basle, Switzerland where he completed an AO Fellowship after which he completed a hand and microvascular fellowship in Louisville, KY.

He returned to Boston in 1981 and began his academic and clinical career at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During his 38 years on the Orthopaedic faculty he has had the opportunity to head the Trauma Service, Foot and Ankle Program and the Hand and Upper Extremity Service. He has had the opportunity to become involved in the training of over 400 Orthopaedic and Plastic surgical residents as well as over 80 Hand and Microsurgical Fellows. Dr. Jupiter was recently named as the first Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Distinguished Alumnus.

Over the course of his career he has had the opportunity to participate in hand surgery workshops and courses in over 50 countries throughout the world educating hundreds of hand surgeons. Dr. Jupiter is an honorary member of more than 25 international societies of either Hand Surgery or Orthopaedic Surgery and 15 national and international editorial boards. He has been named to America's Top Surgeons annually and Best of Boston since 2007. He has received the Physician Recognition Award from the Arthritis Foundation of America, AOA Career Educator Award, Lee Osterman Award for Lifetime Education from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the Albert Niessen Lifetime Award from Marquis Who’s Who.

Dr. Jupiter is an internationally known and sought after hand and upper limb specialist. He has given more than 1000 scientific presentations, 165 Visiting Professorships, and 50 named lectureships. He has published more than 400 original publications, 182 analytic reviews, 160 chapters in scientific texts and was co-author or co-editor of 12 major texts in upper limb and orthopaedic problems. Dr. Jupiter has developed a worldwide reputation, especially related to problems of the wrist and elbow along with all other conditions involving the hand and upper limb.

He has been married to Beryl Stephanie for 47 years and has one daughter Stacy and one grandson Cooper.