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The 2007 Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Surgery
Residency Program (HCORP) Graduation Reception and Dinner
was held on June 22, 2007 at the Fairmont Copley Hotel. It was
a beautiful event, attended by numerous residents, faculty, fellows,
family members and friends. The evening began with
cocktails in the foyer with a slide-show of photos of the graduating
class over their years in the program. After the reception,
the attendees entered the Grand Ballroom for dinner and the
graduation ceremony.
Dr. James Herndon, Master of Ceremonies and Director of
the Residency Program, welcomed everyone to the event. The
Graduating Fellows of each of the Hospitals were then acknowledged
by their respective chairman, Drs. James Kasser, Mark
Gebhardt, Thomas Thornhill and Harry Rubash. In total, there
were 39 fellows this year.
The Osgood Visiting Professor, Dr. James F. Kellam was
then introduced by Dr. Herndon. Dr. Kellam, a well-known
Orthopaedic Traumatologist and senior staff at Carolinas
Medical Center, took to the stage. He applauded the graduating
class of seniors for their outstanding thesis work and
the quality of their presentations at Thesis Day. Dr. Kellam
lamented having to choose only two to award with the coveted
research awards. In the end though, he presented an award to
Dr. Alex Sah for his work “Dislocation Rate after Conversion of
Hip Hemiarthroplasty to THA – Greater than First-time Revision
THA” and the other to Dr. George Dyer for his thesis titled:
“Improving evaluation of orthopaedic surgical teaching”.
The next awards given for the night were a first for the
HCORP graduation. Dr. David Ring was brought to the stage
to give out the evening’s “Special Award”. He called Dr. Max
Soong, Dr. Michael Vazquez and Dr. Vazquez’s wife Karen to the
stage. Dr. Ring acknowledged each of them for their outstanding
commitment and musical contributions to the HCORP
band “Rod the Long Bone”. All three had been active members
of the band throughout their residency and had helped make
RTLB the musical sensation (within the hospital community)
that it had become.
The Class of 2007 then collectively approached the stage
for the announcement of the Golden Apple Award. The Golden
Apple – given to the faculty member that the graduating class
feels “contributed the most to resident education and provided
inspirational leadership through outstanding dedication to patient
care” – was awarded to Dr. Daniel Estok from the Brigham
and Women’s Hospital. His speech, like the man himself, was
humble and gracious. Congratulations Dr. Estok on this welldeserved
award!
The Graduating Class also thanked two very special people.
Elizabeth Lynch, PA-C from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital
was given a gift from the graduating class to thank her for all
the work she does at the Brigham in coordinating discharges of
inpatients. Diane Sheehan, the beloved Residency Coordinator,
was then brought forward and thanked for the tremendous
work she does in making the residency program what it is and
helping the residents navigate through during their five years
in the program. All the residents are thankful for the amazing
dedication and hardwork of Diane Sheehan!
Dr. Thomas Thornhill then announced the recipient of the
William H. Thomas Award. This award, voted on by the faculty
of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is awarded to the resident
that “best exemplifies excellence in orthopaedics, devotion
to patient care, collegiality and teamwork”. Dr. Thornhill then
acknowledged that there were many deserving recipients in
this year’s class, but that the man that came out on top was Dr.
George Sinclair Mitchell Dyer.
The Leonard Marmor Award was then announced by Dr.
James Kasser. The Marmor award is given annually to the
graduating senior with the highest Orthopaedic In-Training
Examination (OITE) scores. This year’s Marmor Award recipient
was Dr. Alex Sah.
Dr. Herndon then invited Dr. George Dyer back to the
stage and honored him for his work as Editor-in-Chief of the
Orthopaedic Journal at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dyer then
announced the persons to whom this year’s Journal would
be dedicated. Traditionally dedicated to one member of the
Harvard faculty, this year the journal has been dedicated to two
– Drs. John Emans and Michael Millis from Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Peter Waters had been asked to write the dedication (which
appears at the beginning of the journal) and he came to the
podium to share his dedication with the audience. It was a
moving tribute to two truly amazing doctors.
The wonderful evening culminated in the real reason for
all being there – the graduation of a wonderfully talented group
of residents. Drs. Rubash, Thornhill, Kasser and Gebhardt
introduced the members of the graduating class – sharing stories
from residency, quoting embarrassing excerpts from their
personal statements, telling stories they dug up from when they
were younger – and presented them with their diplomas. The
class of graduating seniors will be missed. Congratulations
to all of you, the final class of 10…Congratulations Class of
2007!
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