Stephen Kates, M.D.
I am pleased to announce that, following a national search, Stephen Kates, M.D., has been selected to serve as Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He will begin his tenure on November 16, 2015.
Dr. Kates comes to VCU from the University of Rochester where he is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Associate Director for the Center for Musculoskeletal Research, a top ranked orthopaedic laboratory. He is a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School and did his residency training at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester. He is editor of Geriatric Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation and is past president of the International Geriatric Fracture Society.
Dr. Kates serves as the PI of the AO Foundation-Trauma Clinical Priority Program on Bone Infection. Earlier this year, Dr. Kates and his research partners won the 2015 Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research/Orthopaedic Research Society Richard Brand Award for the most outstanding clinical orthopaedic research paper, “A multiplex assay of host immunity against Staph aureus for Osteomyelitis patients.” In addition, he serves as the national leader of the NSQIP/AAOS/OTA national focused registry on hip fractures and is an internationally recognized thought leader in geriatric fracture care. Dr. Kates developed the Geriatric Fracture Center Model of Care, which has been emulated by many hospitals in the U.S., UK, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Dr. Kates will relocate to Richmond with his wife, Amy L. Kates, RN, MS, who has vast experience in cardiology and management, and his daughter Hailey Kates who is a national level equestrian. His older daughter Olivia Kates, MD, is an intern in internal medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Kates will succeed Robert S. Adelaar, M.D., current Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Adelaar joined VCU in 1976 and was named Department Chair and the John A. Cardea Endowed Chair in 2002. As Chair, Dr. Adelaar has overseen growth in the Department including doubling the number of surgeons and the number of operative cases. The Department has gained recognition by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 50 orthopaedic clinical services in the country. Dr. Adelaar is a past president of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society and the Southern Orthopaedic Association. I am extremely grateful to him for his outstanding contributions to clinical care and education in the School of Medicine and Health System.
My thanks go to Dr. Laurence DiNardo, Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, who led the national search, and the search committee, who identified Dr. Kates as the next leader of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Jerome F. Strauss, III, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, VCU School of Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, VCU Health System