Douglas R. Dirschl, MD, Lowell T. Coggeshall Professor, intends to step down as Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine and take a new position as chair of the Joseph Barnhart Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, effective April 1, 2023. He will remain at UChicago through February 2023.
Dirschl has served as the inaugural chair of the department since 2013, when he joined the University of Chicago after spending the bulk of his academic career at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Since that time, he has led significant transformation and growth in orthopaedics at UChicago. The size of clinically active faculty nearly tripled, including a substantial number of female faculty. UChicago Medicine launched new programs in spine, trauma, primary care sports, bone infections, and bone health, and expanded care to new locations in Orland Park, the South Loop, and northwest Indiana.
Dirschl was deeply involved in the evaluation and planning for our Level 1 adult trauma center, which opened in May 2018. It has become among the busiest trauma centers in the city, and UChicago orthopaedic surgeons are consulted in 65% of the more than 5,000 trauma cases per year. The trauma program provides a crucial foundation for orthopaedic training programs and scholarly activity, which Dirschl has used to further strengthen the culture of clinical excellence and national educational leadership in the department.
The University plans to conduct an external search for a new chair; plans for interim leadership will be announced at a later time.
