Yale School of Medicine’s Lisa Lattanza Earns Diversity Award from American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Lisa Lattanza, MD, chair of the Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation at the Yale School of Medicine, has been presented with the 2021 annual Diversity Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

The Diversity Award recognizes AAOS fellows and emeritus members who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding commitment to making orthopaedics more representative of and accessible to the diverse population it serves.

“I am honored and truly humbled to receive the Diversity Award from AAOS,” Lattanza said. “This has been an area of passion for me since medical school. I have had the privilege and the honor to collaborate with and work alongside many likeminded individuals who share similar beliefs. I would not be able to receive this accolade had it not been for their collective contributions and support.”

When Lattanza started medical school in the early ‘90s, the number of women residents totaled only 6% and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts barely existed. She recalls a specific example where the chair from her medical school refused to write a letter of recommendation for her or any woman interested in pursuing orthopaedics.

Where many saw challenges, Lattanza saw opportunity.

“I believe a sense of belonging is the natural consequence when diversity, equity, and inclusion overlap,” Lattanza said. “As orthopaedic surgeons, it is important that we reflect the populations and patients we serve.”

Lattanza’s undertakings in the field of orthopaedics have been immersive, global, and conducted through a lens of inclusivity. She co-founded The Perry Initiative in 2009, which is a STEM non-profit named after Lattanza’s mentor, Jacquelin Perry, MD, who was one of the first and most prolific women orthopaedic surgeons in the country.

The Perry Initiative targets women in high school and medical school through outreach programs, providing them with hands-on exposure and mentoring support to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery and engineering.

“The Perry Initiative with its breadth of workshops introduces and inspires high school, college, and medical students to pursue STEM-oriented careers, with the ultimate goal of changing the face of orthopedics and bioengineering to one that is more diverse in gender, ethnic, and racial representation,” said an associate of Lattanza’s, Amy L. Ladd, M.D., FAAOS.

The Perry Programs are held at least annually in 38 states and have reached more than 14,000 young women. Typically, only about 1% of women medical studies ultimately choose orthopedics, but nearly 25% of medical students who are Perry alumni do, according to a report in Orthopedics This Week.

Lattanza is a world- renowned leader in patient-specific 3D surgical planning and technology for deformity correction. She utilized her expertise in this area when she led a team to perform the first elbow-to-elbow transplant in the world in 2016, transplanting a patient’s left elbow into his right arm to give him one functioning extremity after a devastating accident.

Lattanza served as president in 2017 for the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society—a leadership development and networking group founded in 1983 for the growing number of women orthopaedic surgeons. She also served on the steering committee for Movement is Life, a multi-disciplinary coalition seeking to eliminate racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in muscle and joint health.  Lattanza has also volunteered in Peru and helped to build sustainable programs in Nicaragua, where she assisted in training physicians to become proficient in pediatric upper extremity surgery.

At a national level, the field of othopaedics continues to lag behind in diversity when compared to other surgical and medical fields. Among specialties, orthopaedic surgery has the fewest number of women, as well as the least number of individuals from underrepresented populations.

Only about 1% of all women medical students match in orthopaedics and 14-16% of orthopaedic residents are women. At Yale however, the number of women orthopaedics residents is now 20% overall and 60% in the incoming PGY 1 class. In addition, underrepresented individuals total 40%.

“Social science typically predicts a 30% representation for efforts such as diversity in orthopaedics to be self- sustaining,” Lattanza added. “Thanks to The Perry Initiative, as well as other entities and organizations working in tandem with this cause, we hope to reach that target of 30% women residents sometime between 2030-2035.”

Portions of this article first appeared on the website of the Yale School of Medicine.