About Us

The University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine is actively involved in quality patient care, teaching, and research concerning bone and joint problems. Special areas of expertise include foot and ankle, hand and microvascular, hip and knee, arthritis, sports medicine, pediatric orthopaedics, shoulder and elbow, spine, trauma, and tumors.

Mission Statement:

  • Provide expert  specialized surgical care to our patients
  • Train future generations of orthopaedics surgeons
  • Build the future of orthopaedics surgery through targeted research
  • Nurture the academic growth of our faculty surgeons

Teaching and Residency:

In addition to providing instruction for medical students, the department provides education at the graduate, residency, and post-residency levels. Selected medical students may elect research experience in the department. A fully approved residency program offers opportunities to carry out fundamental and clinical research. Residents may work toward the Master of Science degree by meeting the requirements of the Graduate School and the academic unit offering the degree program.

Continuing Medical Education

Additionally, we have some valuable materials for physicians seeking to learn how to better diagnose and treat a variety of orthopedic conditions. These are listed under "Continuing Medical Education".

Appointment and Information:

Please contact your doctor for specific questions concerning your condition. If you would like to contact the University of Washington Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine faculty, they see patients at several clinics in the Seattle area. For more information, or to make an appointment, please see Contact Us.

Copyright

All information contained within the University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine web site is copyright by the University of Washington (2002) unless otherwise noted.

Terms of use

Material found on this web site may be freely used for personal, educational, research, scientific, and/or information purposes only. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and distribute copies of content material (unless otherwise noted) for nonprofit educational and nonprofit library purposes, provided that copies are distributed at or below costs and that credit for author, source, and copyright are included on each copy. No part of any material may be copied, downloaded, stored in a retrieval system, or redistributed for any commercial purpose without the express permission of the university.

This web site is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. The information provided here should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease.

This web site provides a wide range of patient education materials, continuing medical education articles, and various media (videos and photos) on orthopaedic conditions.

Patient education materials 
We have a large database of patient education articles, mostly in the areas of arthritis and the shoulder. We will be adding new articles as our faculty finish them. You can help us out by asking questions and letting us know what kind of information you're looking for.

Information for medical professionals 
You'll notice that some of our articles have been written for physicians and specialists in orthopaedics. We've provided these for both medical professionals and for patients who need technical information about their conditions. The Residents, Fellows, & ACEs section contains information about our residency, advanced clinical experience, and fellowship programs. Additionally, you'll find several CME (Continuing Medical Education) articles for physicians wishing to learn how some orthopedic conditions are diagnosed and managed.

Multimedia 
You'll find movies of exercises, surgical techniques, and anatomic descriptions in many of the articles in this web site. These movies were produced by our faculty. A list of all the movies on this site is available here.

Tabs 
At the top and bottom of each page is a navigation toolbar with links to the major sections of this web site. Each section corresponds to a different area of study in Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. 

Articles 
Most of the content on this web site is organized into articles. The articles are multi-page groups of text, images, movies, and other files that share a common subject. A list of all the articles on this site is available here.

Ask a question 
If you have a question, but cannot figure out what search terms to enter, just go to our search and enter your question in plain English!

Find a doctor 
The Find People offers ways to find our health providers. A list of all the articles on this site is available here.

Asking for help 
If you can't find what you're looking for or are having problems viewing this site, why not Ask For Help?  When you fill out this form, we'll try to address your concerns and respond to you as soon as we can. The response may require several days, so if you have an urgent request--especially if it's about your medical condition--contact your doctor or follow the "Contact Us" link at the top of each page to view a list of phone numbers to call to set up an appointment with our physicians.  

We don't have information about health providers from other organizations. These outside web sites may provide information about doctors not affiliated with the University of Washington: 

  • To find orthopaedic surgeons anywhere in the world, go to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons "Find a Surgeon" page.
  • To find shoulder and elbow surgeons anywhere in the world, go to the search page of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Society.
  • To find hand surgeons in the United States, go to the American Society for Surgery of the Hand directory of hand surgeons nationwide.
  • To find rheumatologists anywhere in the world, go to the American College of Rheumatology "Geographic Membership Directory" page.

Employment 
This web site does not offer information about employment or jobs. You might find some useful information here:For information about working at the University of Washington, visit the UW employment page.

  • For information about working with UW Medicine, visit the UW Medicine employment pages.

Social support
This web site does not offer support group information. If you would like to join a support group, please visit the Arthritis Foundation web site.

If you are or were a patient at a University of Washington clinic, you can contact the Social Work office at (206) 598-4370. Social Work offers inpatients help while in the hospital, such as financial assistance, help with a discharge plan, or help finding appropriate housing or support following a surgery. For outpatients, Social Work can help with psychological or social issues. Again, the Social Work number for UW patients is (206) 598-4370. 

Medical records 
We do not provide medical records. Please contact Request Services in Patient Data Services at (206) 598-4344.

The UW Department of Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine offers this editorial statement to demonstrate our commitment to high-quality health information. The following discloses our editorial practices for this website: http://www.orthop.washington.edu.

Authors 
Our health information content is authored by the medical faculty of the UW Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Some content was developed with help from The Arthritis Foundation.

Templates 
Our content is created using templates that respond to research regarding the information needs of our visitors. It is formatted in response to research regarding the ways in which this information is most accessible and useful. The information and the format undergoes continuous review by the authors and editors of the site (UW faculty), the website manager, and the public. Modifications are made in response to these reviews.

Quality review 
The website manager reviews all content (including grammar, spelling, composition, clarity, and appropriate reading level for the layperson) before posting it to the website.

Peer review 
After initial quality review, content is reviewed by experts not involved in the creation of the content. Experts are faculty of this department. Content is reviewed for originality, accuracy, completeness, and correctness. Authors, editors, or reviewers revise content in response to such review.

Editorial team 
As of now, the editorial team of this website, not including occasional or anonymous peer reviewers, includes:

  • Jens R. Chapman, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department
  • Peter R. Cavanagh PhD DSc, Professor And Endowed Chair in Women’s Sports Medicine