Two Longstanding Hand Surgery Colloquiums Return to Mass General

After a three-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 31st annual Richard J. Smith Memorial Lectureship and the 8th Annual Jesse Jupiter International Forum brought surgeons from around the globe to Boston for in-person presentations, roundtable conversations and networking events at the Wyndham Hotel on May 19-20, 2023.

Smith Day is a long-standing tradition in the Hand & Arm Service honoring the late Richard Smith, MD, a pioneer in hand surgery. The Jupiter Forum is a more recent addition to this Harvard Medical School continuing medical education (CME) course that extends and complements Smith Day with research and clinical discussions meant to honor Jesse Jupiter, MD. Dr. Jupiter worked as a hand & arm surgeon under Dr. Smith in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Mass General, and just recently retired in the fall of 2020. Both doctors served terms as chiefs of Mass General's Hand & Arm Service and emphasized the importance of research, innovation and education in the field of hand surgery. This combined event is a chance to underscore these values and honor the legacy of both surgeons.

The 2023 event was hosted by Chaitanya Mudgal, MD, MS, and other faculty members from Mass General’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and consisted of a diverse range of research presentations and panel discussions featuring expert global voices in hand and arm surgery. The central theme for this years’ colloquium was "Uncommon Situations in Surgery of the Upper Limb." The day culminated in an oration from this year’s Smith Lectureship recipient, Peter J. Stern, MD, the Emeritus Hill Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati, a past President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and the American Orthopaedic Association, and an alumnus of the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program (HCORP). Dr. Stern’s talk was entitled, "Excellence in Orthopaedic Surgery."

With presenters from Mass General, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Tufts Hospital, the Lahey Clinic and other renowned institutions, some of the topics covered included complex elbow injuries, computer tomography to assess fractures, brachial plexus injuries, targeted muscle reinnervation for pain mitigation and nail sparing excision in glomus tumor surgery. This combined event is held annually, and a date, topic and registration link for the 2024 event will be announced in the coming months.