Duke Orthopaedics was honored to welcome Dr. Theodore J. Ganley as our Pediatric Orthopaedic Visiting Professor. Dr. Ganley is the Director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and holds the Bisignano Family Distinguished Endowed Chair in Sports Medicine. A nationally recognized leader in pediatric sports medicine, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the field through both clinical innovation and collaborative research.
Dr. Ganley was one of the driving forces behind the creation of CHOP’s Sports Medicine and Performance Center. His clinical expertise lies in the arthroscopic treatment of knee, shoulder, and elbow injuries, and he is especially known for developing a growth plate-sparing ACL reconstruction technique for skeletally immature patients. This innovation has significantly advanced care for young athletes.
In his talk, “How to Best Evolve and Collaborate Throughout Your Career,” Dr. Ganley emphasized the importance of building meaningful professional relationships to drive research and improve patient outcomes. He encouraged attendees to join committees, attend conferences, participate in interest groups, and actively network to foster multicenter collaborations and solve complex challenges in orthopaedics.
“It’s about making connections throughout your career,” he shared. “The goal for our patients is fitness for a lifetime. We need to model, encourage, and teach this to society.”
Dr. Ganley’s research interests focus on the optimal treatment of sports injuries in elite adolescent and pediatric athletes. He is the co-founder of the Research in Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee (ROCK) group, helped form the Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine (PRISM) society, and is a member of the Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) group. He also serves on the POSNA Education Committee and the advisory board of the International Pediatric Orthopaedic Symposium.
We are grateful for Dr. Ganley’s visit and the opportunity to learn from his leadership, innovation, and collaborative spirit. His message of lifelong fitness and teamwork resonates deeply with our mission at Duke Orthopaedics.