“Dear Sirs: I am a Woman Orthopedic Surgeon”

While surgery in general is trending towards more female representation, orthopedic surgery has been lagging. It has been so slow to change, says Dr. Christen Russo, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, that she still gets letters of recommendation for medical students vying for orthopedic residencies addressed, “Dear Sirs.”

But change can happen, writes Dr. Russo in a recent opinion piece published in MedPage Today’s KevinMD.com. Since 2016, the orthopedic department at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center has grown from one female faculty member to 14 — with four women promoted to leadership positions. Today, one-third of the department’s orthopedic surgeons and resident trainees are women.

“Our representation matters not just for us but for our patients,” Dr. Russo writes. “In a field where I fought to be included for so long, I envision a future with first-generation diverse orthopedic surgeons strongly represented at all hospitals across the country.”

Read the full op-ed here.