Gearen appointed permanent chair of UF orthopaedics department

Joint replacement expert Peter F. Gearen, M.D., has been appointed permanent chairman of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, after a successful 17-month stint as interim chairman.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity,” said Gearen, an associate professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation and chief of the department’s adult reconstruction and joint replacement division. “It’s a wonderful group of people to be responsible to and for. My notion of leadership is that I am here to serve them, to help them construct an enriching academic life so that they enjoy coming to work.”

A faculty member since 1983, Gearen said he feels well prepared for the new position. Among other responsibilities, he served as interim chairman for several months in 1997, chief of staff of Shands at the University of Florida from 1992 to 1999 and chairman of the University of Florida Medical Selection Committee from 1990 to 1992.

Gearen said his principal goal for the next five years is to build the department’s research program to match the success of its clinical efforts.

“If I can leave a legacy, I would like to see the University of Florida in the upper tier of academic orthopaedic research institutions,” Gearen said.

Next fall, the UF orthopaedic research division will get a huge boost with the opening of a human motion laboratory, part of the department’s $23 million Orthopaedic Institute, which is nowunder construction just west of the UF main campus at the intersection of S.W. 34th Street and Hull Road. This fall, the department will hire a director for the lab, Gearen said.

“In the new lab, we will be investigating all forms of human motion, whether it’s a golf swing, a pitcher throwing a baseball or a patient with cerebral palsy who needs a certain type of operation based on recognizable gait patterns,” he said.

The institute also will house the department’s clinical practice and should be ready to receive patients in early September, he said. The move to the new facility is scheduled to take place in stages and will require careful planning.

“It is a complex undertaking, much like leading an army into battle,” Gearen said. “We have to get so many things organized for the moment when we take two separate practices — one at Shands at UF and one at the UF Physicians Sports Medicine Center at Hampton Oaks — and move them together rapidly without missing a beat. The patients expect and deserve a seamless operation, and we intend to deliver it.”