Welcome From Our Chair

Darrel S. Brodke, MD
Department of Orthopaedics Chair

I am pleased to introduce you to the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Utah.  We have a world-class faculty focused on exceptional patient care, top-tier education, and targeted innovation to advance our field. 
 
Education is at the core of all we do. We provide a nurturing and supportive environment while pushing our trainees to consistently perform at their best.  Our faculty cover all subspecialties and are engaged nationally and internationally.  Residents gain broad exposure, from the more straight-forward to the highly complex, rotating through every subspecialty as a junior and again as a senior, preparing each trainee to meet their ultimate career goals.

A varied and deep surgical experience is foundational to our teaching philosophy. Trainees visit our department’s own state-of-the-art Skills Knowledge Integration Laboratory for focused cadaveric and virtual surgical training.  Equally important are the decision-making skills gained in the clinical setting and the fundamental knowledge gained in our year-round didactics.  We consciously foster leadership and teaching skills in all our trainees and provide opportunities to exercise both.
 
Through our research program, we are designing the future of orthopaedic care, including both “discovery” and “innovation” branches of inquiry.  Our discovery-based initiatives span from patient-focused clinical outcomes and population health to bioengineering, genetics, osteobiologics and sarcoma research, and have gained national and international recognition.  We are ranked nationally as a top 10 NIH funded orthopaedic department. Beyond this, we are uniquely supportive of technical innovation as a branch of academic inquiry. Our Peery Orthopaedic Innovation Center supports all who are interested, from trainees through seasoned faculty, to develop the implants and instruments of the future.
 
We appreciate your interest in our program and welcome the opportunity to share more through our website and in person.
 
Thank you,
Darrel S. Brodke, MD
Jack and Hazel Robertson Presidential Professor
Chair, Department of Orthopaedics