The OrthoPod

Associate Professor Erich Rutz is a Swiss-trained paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. For 15 years, he worked at the University Children’s Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, where he was Head of their Neuromuscular Hip Surgery Program and Gait Laboratory. Then, in April 2020, Erich was recruited to the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne to commence as a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon and the...

Andrew Fraval graduated Medical School from Melbourne University in 2012 and completed the Victorian orthopaedic training program in 2022. Andrew has recently returned from sub-specialty training in primary and revision hip and knee joint replacement surgery with the prestigious Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. This was an American-accredited fellowship program which rarely grants acceptance to...

Professor Natalie Sims is a bone cell biologist and the Head of the Bone Cell Biology & Disease Laboratory at the St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research. Natalie completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 1995 and soon after became a Research Associate at Yale University School of Medicine, before returning to Australia in 2001 and now leads the Bone Cell Biology & Disease Labo...

Professor Julian Feller graduated from medical school at Monash University with honours in 1982 and has recently brought up 30 years of experience as an orthopaedic surgeon. Julian is based at OrthoSport Victoria in Epworth Richmond, consulting to a wide range of patients from professional athletes to weekend warriors on his special interests of anterior cruciate ligament injury, patellar instabil...

Chad Everard is a former registered operating theatre nurse with a passion for orthopaedic surgical procedures spanning over a 25 year career. After beginning in the operating theatres at St John of God Subiaco Hospital in Perth, Chad progressed to working for DePuy Orthopaedics, firstly in Perth and then in Melbourne, for a combined 13 years. Chad’s significant experience in medical technology co...

Dr Gary Berryman graduated with honours in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1987 and gained his Fellowship from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 1994. Gary has also competed further training to obtain a Diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology, and a Fellowship from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.   Julie McKay is a Registered Nurse and Accredi...

Dr Alessandro Bruschi the Honorary Sarcoma Fellow at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. In addition to his interests and expertise in orthopaedic oncology and trauma, Alessandro has also recently begun a PhD in oncology.

Welcome to The OrthoPod for 2023! Exams are over and a new year of podcasting is ahead. Enjoy this episode compiling some of the best moments of The OrthoPod along our journey.

Professor Jane Gunn is a General Practitioner, PhD graduate, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at The University of Melbourne. Professor Gunn’s distinguished career as an academic has seen her work as Head of the Department of General Practice, Deputy Head of the Melbourne Medical School, and the inaugural Chair of Primary Care Research at The University of Melbour...

Stryker Corporation is a multinational company listed on the Fortune 500 with over 43,000 staff globally. Stryker was founded in 1941 by an orthopaedic surgeon Dr Homer Stryker in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where their headquarters remain today. Stryker are one of the world's leading medical technology companies and offer a range of medical, orthopaedic, and neurosurgical products and services designed...

Associate Professor Michael Ponsford is a Rehabilitation Physician at Epworth Healthcare with over 25 years’ experience traumatic brain injury, orthopaedic and orthogeriatric rehabilitation. As well as offering superb teaching to medical students in the principles of Rehabilitation Medicine, Michael is also the Director of Training at Rehabilitation Medicine Training Victoria, the governing body f...

Dr John Orchard is a Sports and Exercise physician with over 20 years of experience. Dr Orchard completed his medical degree at the University of Melbourne and would go on to become the first Sports and Exercise physician trainee in Australia. Dr Orchard’s medical career has seen him working as club doctor to the Sydney Swans in the AFL and Sydney Roosters in the NRL, to his current role as Chief...

Professor Peter Choong is the Sir Hugh Devine Chair of Surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and the Head of the Departments of Surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and The University of Melbourne. A graduate of the University of Melbourne Medical School in 1984, Professor Choong has almost 40 years’ experience in research (including 637 research publications), teaching and medical leadership, and is a d...

Dr Sean Stevens is a General Surgeon and the Director of the General and Trauma Emergency Surgery Unit at Austin Health. Sean has interests in global surgery and has previously completed a Master of Public Health and led project work in Kenya and East Timor. Sean is also the Supervisor of Prevocational Surgical Training at Austin Health. His background in Surgical Education includes the completion...

Dr Chris Schilling is an academic and consultant health economist who has over 15 years of experience in economic modelling and research across academia, industry, and consultancy. As part of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Total Joint Replacement, Dr Schilling conducts research into the cost-effectiveness of surgery and the reduction of low-value care in the treatment of osteoarthriti...

Dr Alessandro Bruschi is an orthopaedic resident at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna due to finish his specialist training in 2023. Dr Bruschi’s surgical interests are in orthopaedic oncology and sports traumatology, and he has research interests in exoskeletons and neuromuscular protheses. His penultimate year of orthopaedic training will involve coming to Melbourne for a fellowship a...

Professor Rachelle Buchbinder is a physician specialising in rheumatology, Director of the Monash-Cabrini Department of Musculoskeletal Health and Clinical Epidemiology at Cabrini Hospital and a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Monash University. She is known internationally as a vocal proponent of evidence-based medicine and for her landmark studies, particularly those examining treatments a...

Dr Priya Sumithran is an endocrinologist who is a member of the council of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. As a clinician researcher, Dr Sumithran leads the Obesity Research Group at the University of Melbourne Department of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and is the Head of Obesity Medicine at Austin Health. Dr Sumithran’s research and clinical interests are in the neu...

Mr Matt Alexander grew up and was educated in Melbourne, receiving his medical degree from The University of Melbourne in 2005. He then completed his orthopaedic training in Victoria and Tasmania and commenced practice as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in 2016. He has completed fellowships across the world and has a special interest in robotic-assisted arthroplasty including hip replacement via...

Dr Avanthi Mandaleson was born and raised in the UK to Sri Lankan parents and moved to Australia to complete her medical degree at Monash University, graduating in 2004. In 2014, Dr Mandaleson finished her training as an orthopaedic surgeon in Australia, and then went on to complete fellowships in upper limb surgery at the Wrightington Hospital in England, and in microsurgical reconstruction at Ga...

Dr Julia Kirby is a graduate of the University of Adelaide Medical School and completed her orthopaedic training in Victoria and Tasmania before commencing practice as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in 2020. Dr Kirby has special interests in sports injury and orthopaedic trauma surgery, and prior to her orthopaedic training, she also completed a Master of Sports Medicine at The University of Que...

Associate Professor Claudia Di Bella was born in Italy and gained her medical degree from the oldest medical school in the Western World at the University of Bologna. Associate Professor Di Bella then went on to complete her orthopaedic training at one of Europe’s premier specialist orthopaedic hospitals at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute. Nowadays living in Australia, Claudia is a Fellow of the...

Professor David Hunter is the Florance and Cope Chair of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine at The University of Sydney, and a Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre. Professor Hunter is the number one ranked expert in osteoarthritis on Expertscape.com with an impressive 532* peer-reviewed publications. He has co-authored several...

Rhys Adams and Scott Hawthorne were highly talented athletes in cricket and football, respectively. Rhys and Scott have in common an incredible five complete anterior cruciate ligament tears each. These injuries significantly affected their sporting aspirations and forced them both into premature sporting retirement. Nowadays, they have both successfully transitioned into the next phases of their...

Daniel Gould is the President of the Student Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal Association and the first Doctor of Medicine student at The University of Melbourne to enter into an MD-PhD program. Dan is investigating the use of natural language processing and machine learning techniques applied to clinical predictive modelling to personalise care for total knee replacement patients. Sid Rele is the...