Welcome to About Orthopedics
By: Jonathan Cluett, MD
Dateline: 05/25/99
Orthopedic Surgery is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and prevention of injuries and diseases of your body's musculoskeletal system. This complex system includes your bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves and allows you to move, work and play.
By one well studied outcomes measure, orthopedic procedures account for five of the ten most efficacious medical interventions. This means that, from a patient's perspective, treatment of specific orthopedic diseases, such as a rotator cuff repair, has a more significant impact on the overall well-being of an average patient than treatment of conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and congestive heart failure. This is not to imply that other disease treatments are unnecessary or ineffective; however, the impact of orthopedics on the perception of health of our society is significant. Orthopedic surgeons have the unique opportunity to fix many problems allowing patients to resume previously impaired lifestyles.
The practice of orthopedic medicine has undergone seemingly incomprehensible change in recent decades. In recent years, advances in this area of medicine have surpassed expectations of even the most ambitious minds. Orthopedic surgeons can now place a joint prosthesis in people with broken hips who were once limited to wheelchairs, and arthroscopic surgery allows physicians to look inside joints and perform complex procedures without having to undergo a more serious open-joint operation. Less than one-half century ago many orthopedic problems were sure signs of death or permanent disability, these problems are now being cured.
The internet has been, for the most part, a great success for the general fund of knowledge of 'health consumers' in this country. By supplying what is essentially and endless amount of information, the internet has served to educate and inform patients. Unfortunately, there is little to screen out unproven information or misleading individuals who can make this wonderful tool a confusing source of data. This site is aimed to direct you to quality sources of information, to allow you to make informed decisions and to educate yourself on the field of orthopedic medicine.
This internet site is set up to serve several purposes. Primarily, the reason for establishing this site is to improve accessibility to information. This is, after all, the information decade. Unfortunately, the vast sea of the internet is often difficult to navigate, especially concerning medical information. This site will direct you to carefully selected resources appropriate for your level of interest. The two primary audiences for this site are: patients and their families, and health care professionals.
For patients:
There are many common orthopedic conditions that affect patients in this country. Unfortunately, these problems are usually alien concepts to those who suffer these ailments; therefore, patient education is paramount to ensure that adequate information is presented so that a patient can make an informed decision about their treatment. This forum will focus on selected orthopedic topics and present them in an easy-to-understand way.
For health care professionals:
Physicians, nurses, therapists, and others involved in health care are in need of up-to-date, easily accessed information on the latest developments in their specialty. The internet has become overwhelmed with data; locating specific information can be nearly impossible. Search engines often lead to outdated or inapplicable sites, and what is found is usually not at the level of interest for many with a background in this field. This site will direct you to information that is current and will satisfy your curiosity.
Orthopedics is a rapidly developing and endlessly fascinating specialty of medicine. Together we will use the internet to learn more about this wonderful field of medicine. I encourage you to use the feedback page to offer your suggestions. Subscribe to OrthoNews to have features and other updates sent directly to your email account. Please visit us regularly, and learn more about Orthopedics!
