Megan E. Johnson, M.D., Appointed Program Director for Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Fellowship

Megan E. Johnson, M.D., Appointed Program Director for Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Fellowship

We are honored to announce the appointment of Megan E. Johnson, M.D., as program director for the Dorothy & Bryant Edwards Fellowship in Pediatric Orthopedics and Scoliosis at Scottish Rite for Children. The Edwards fellowship is one of the oldest and largest fellowships in the country and has an alumni of nearly 200 surgeons.  
 
With this new appointment, Dr. Johnson will be responsible for attracting outstanding candidates from diverse backgrounds and training them to be skilled clinicians and surgeons. Dr. Johnson will ensure ongoing maintenance of a high-quality educational curriculum for our fellows and provide leadership and direction to our orthopedic faculty who take part in education. She will have a key role in ensuring our curriculum is undergoing needed innovation through regular program evaluation and quality improvement.
 
Dr. Johnson received her medical degree and completed residency training at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She completed her pediatric orthopedic fellowship at Scottish Rite for Children in 2015, and following her fellowship, she returned to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She joined the Scottish Rite for Children staff in 2020 as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. Her clinical practice focuses on spine deformity in the pediatric population. She also treats patients with spina bifida, not only for their spine conditions but also for lower extremity issues. Dr. Johnson also serves as the Medical Director of Ambulatory Care and is an assistant professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 
 
“Dr. Johnson is an excellent clinician in the outpatient, inpatient and surgical setting and is an extremely talented surgeon who takes on both the straightforward as well as the complex deformities,” says Chief of Staff Daniel J. Sucato, M.D., M.S. “Not only is she a great leader, but she also has a natural ability to educate and is one of the favorites of our fellows to work with in the operating room and clinics.”
 
Dr. Johnson succeeds Dr. Sucato, who has served as program director of the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Fellowship program for the past 10 years. Dr. Sucato will remain Chief of Staff of Scottish Rite for Children as well as the director of Scottish Rite for Children’s Center for Excellence in Spine.

Scottish Rite Hospital Celebrates the Graduation of the 2016-2017 Fellows

Scottish Rite Hospital Celebrates the Graduation of the 2016-2017 Fellows

Scottish Rite Hospital is world-renowned for its dedication to training the pediatric orthopedic surgeons of the future. For almost 40 years, our fellowship program has instilled clinical expertise, compassionate care and leading edge research into each trainee in order to provide the best care possible to every child. The Dorothy & Bryant Edwards Fellowship in Pediatric Orthopedics and Scoliosis provides an extraordinary opportunity and the hospital takes pride in developing these trainees to become leaders at institutions across the world.

Each year, fellows are able to train with the most experienced pediatric orthopedic staff in the country. The fellowship provides a large volume of surgical procedures from the straightforward to the complex. The outpatient setting provides for excellent training as the fellows learn to make a diagnosis, develop a game plan and make decisions on the best course of treatment for each child. The fellows are side-by-side with the attending staff in the outpatient and inpatient settings and in the operating rooms. In addition, the hospital’s commitment to research gives the trainees the opportunity to work on a project of their choice, which gets published in the most important orthopedic journals. Through the quality research, fellows are at the forefront of understanding, managing and finding new treatments for these complex conditions.

This past weekend, the orthopedic staff celebrated the graduation of the hospital’s five fellows. This group has been at the hospital since August 2016 and now is prepared for the next step in their medical career. Scottish Rite Hospital’s Chief of Staff, Daniel J. Sucato, M.D., M.S., is impressed and excited for these fellows’ futures. “These five fellows are intelligent, very talented and it has been a privilege to train them this year,” says Sucato. “They are joining more than 175 fellows who have been through this fellowship program and I wish each of them the best of luck as they begin the next chapter in their career. We have trained them the Scottish Rite Hospital way and we look forward to watching their careers develop, as they take great care of children in their practices. ”

The five graduating fellows and their future plans:
· Andrew Tice, M.D.: McGill University, Montreal, Canada (Orthopedic Scoliosis and Spine Fellowship). Then he will be at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario – Ottawa, Ontario
· Philip Ashley, M.D.: Children’s Hospital of Alabama – Birmingham, Alabama
· Stephan Zmugg, M.D.: Hospital for Special Surgery – New York City, New York (2nd fellowship)
· Daniel Bouton, M.D.: Portland Shriners Hospital – Portland, Oregon
· John Vorhies, M.D.: Stanford Medical Center – Stanford, California

The experience at Scottish Rite Hospital is one of a kind. It provides the opportunity to treat the entire patient and to learn from the best in the field. The hospital is proud of the fellows and the work they have contributed over the past year. The fellowship program allows Scottish Rite Hospital to evolve and grow as our staff continues to train the next generation.

L. Ray Lawson, M.D., International Spine Fellowship: Educating Medical Professionals from Around the World

L. Ray Lawson, M.D., International Spine Fellowship: Educating Medical Professionals from Around the World

At Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, we are dedicated to education. The hospital offers several fellowship programs to provide a well-rounded experience for medical professionals interested in pediatric orthopedics. As an institution, it is a privilege for our doctors to have the opportunity to train individuals from all over the world.

One of the renowned programs at Scottish Rite Hospital is the L. Ray Lawson, M.D., International Pediatric Spine Fellowship. This fellowship is in honor of L. Ray Lawson, M.D., for his many years of commitment and dedication to the treatment of pediatric spine disorders. This program is available to postgraduate surgeons who have completed an orthopedic residency. It provides the recipient with the opportunity to rotate, observe our orthopedic surgeons,  and work on a spine-related research project.

Recently, a recipient of the L. Ray Lawson, M.D., International Pediatric Spine Fellowship, has completed his time at Scottish Rite Hospital. Ali Parsa, M.D., traveled to Dallas, Texas, from Mashhad, Iran, to spend six months learning from the best in pediatric orthopedics. He worked closely with the Chief of Staff, Daniel J. Sucato, M.D. and Steven Sparagana, M.D., and the spine research team on a neuromonitoring study for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). “This program allows the fellow to receive comprehensive training in spinal disorders”, says Assistant Chief of Staff Karl Rathjen, M.D. “It is an honor to have medical professionals traveling from around the world to train at Scottish Rite Hospital – the exchange of ideas enriches all of us and extends the reach of the cutting edge knowledge developed here in Dallas.”

Although Scottish Rite Hospital was a short stop for Dr. Parsa in his medical career, he will be able to take what he has learned back to Iran to continue his research and develop innovative techniques for treating spine disorders. It is an honor to educate physicians like Dr. Parsa, and all of the past and future recipients of this fellowship, to bring better care to children all over the world.