October 11, 2024 • 16 mins
AHF Podcast Interview: Atul F. Kamath, MD
In this episode of the AHF Podcast, host Dr. Joseph M. Schwab interviews Dr. Atul F. Kamath, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. They discuss Dr. Kamath's extensive background, his journey in orthopedics, his involvement with the Anterior Hip Foundation, and his new role as the Treasurer for the organization. Dr. Kamath shares his insights on hip preservation, the evolution of hip surgery, and the importance of industry partnerships.
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Episode Transcript
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Joseph M. Schwab (00:06):
Today, my guest is Atul Kamath at the
Cleveland clinic in Cleveland,Ohio.
He's a professor of orthopedicsurgery.
He's been a friend of mine for along time, and I'm very excited
to have him on the AHF podcast.
Before we go any further, Atul,just tell everybody a little bit
about yourself, your background,and your practice.
Atul F. Kamath (00:29):
Thanks, Joe, for having me today.
I'm excited to have a littlechat here.
and, my, background, I'm, grewup in New York, and, New York
City, then Long Island, and thendid, most of my schooling on the
East Coast.
I went to Harvard, undergrad,Harvard Medical School, then
some training in Philadelphiafor general surgery and
(00:50):
orthopedics at Penn.
I then did a fellowship at MayoClinic, so a little bit of a
foray into the Midwest there forme in Rochester, and then I
spent a year, almost a year inEurope, doing the Mueller Hip
Fellowship, in Europe, trainingon young hip reconstruction as
yourself, and then also doingsome other innovative things,
(01:13):
one stage for infection, andreally understanding the hip.
And then orthopedics from aglobal perspective, from
different perspectives.
So that was an interesting timeabroad.
And then I went back to practicein Philadelphia at the
University of Pennsylvania whereI did my orthopedic training.
I spent about five years thereprior to coming to Cleveland,
(01:34):
Ohio, and I've been here forabout six years now.
So that's a little bit of mybackground.
Joseph M. Schwab (01:41):
Primarily doing adult reconstruction.
and still doing hippreservation.
Atul F. Kamath (01:47):
Yeah, I would say probably about 25 percent of
my practice is in the somethingrelated to hip preservation or
joint preservation.
That's hip arthroscopy, pelvicosteotomy, surgical
dislocations, and then otherthings like AVN management or
cartilage treatments around thehip, primarily it, but also some
around the knee, including someosteotomies around the knee as
(02:08):
well.
So
Joseph M. Schwab (02:09):
So when did you get it first involved with
the anterior hip foundation
Atul F. Kamath (02:14):
This is going back several years now I think
in the inaugural, kind ofgroups, that you were part of,
so now we're going backprobably.
2017, where some of thediscussions were, Hey, should we
get a group together thatfocuses around, anterior hip
surgery, but just hip surgery ingeneral?
And how do we understand thatpush innovation, explore
(02:37):
boundaries of anterior hipsurgery?
And as when, looking back, evenfive or seven years, anterior
hip surgery.
didn't have that momentum itreally has now.
It was starting to gather a lotof steam, but so this was a
little bit in, I would say, theearlier days of the Anterior Hip
Foundation, and then also acollective that, of course, a
(02:58):
lot of the founding members hadput together.
Joseph M. Schwab (03:02):
and you were teaching, anterior approach
courses at the time, right?
Atul F. Kamath (03:06):
Yes.
Yes.
So I think, a lot of us, some ofus met through some of these
courses that we were teachingsome of them through projects or
research or trying to look atthe hip and, from the anterior
approach side, I had taughtcourses that were traditional
joint replacement courses, but Iwas also involved in other
things like hip arthroscopy oryoung hip surgery.
(03:27):
And for me, it was looking alongthat spectrum, that continuum
of, can we just not just talkabout anterior hip from the
joint replacement aspect, butreally the anatomy is the same,
pelvic osteotomy, as is justmore of an extension of an
anterior based approach to thehip.
So a lot of the teaching, a lotof the fundamentals, a lot of
the anatomy, and then also thesame, in, terms of the initial
(03:49):
crew that was developing thisorganization, really had that
kind of broader focus of notjust hip replacement, let's,
think about it broadly.
Joseph M. Schwab (03:58):
Yeah.
And it's, you alluded to this,the last decade or two has
really seen a tremendous growthin the field of hip surgery,
anterior approach, hippreserving surgery, in that
evolution that you've seen.
is there anything that you wouldwant to impart maybe to younger
surgeons or is there any lessonsthat you've learned from it that
(04:19):
you would want to share?
Atul F. Kamath (04:20):
Yeah, I think it's, we're going back to the
anatomy, right?
So I think as a comprehensivehip surgeon or just orthopedic
surgeon in general, it's alwaysgood to go back to the
fundamentals of the anatomy.
I think it's, whatever yourtraining bias is or what your
exposure to say, for example, inmy residency, we did a lot of
posterior approaches to the hip.
We did some anterolateralapproaches.
(04:41):
I saw a few, now this is goingback some time, some MIS2
incision approaches.
I saw very little anteriorapproach, but I was always
fascinated that.
Hey, we should probably, as hipsurgeons or, joint replacement
surgeons, we should startunderstanding the hip from
multiple facets.
So for a surgeon just out intraining or in training, or, I
think it's, whereas yourworkhorse approach may be a
(05:03):
posterior approach or workhorseapproach, maybe something else,
you should probably, delve intothe anatomy, learn the
fundamentals, even go to acourse or two just to explore
the anterior approach from theanterior approach perspective.
And then that, I think, makesyou a better or more
comprehensive hip surgeon ingeneral.
and then again, there's thingslike revision surgery, anatomy,
(05:25):
other things that I think we canexpand upon, as we grow in our
learning curve on just insurgery and orthopedics in
general.
I think the fundamentals for theyoung surgeon, just keep an open
mind, think creatively, thinkdifferently, and then just
expose yourself out there.
to different philosophies ortechniques.
I think it's I think that'sprobably the best advice I could
give.
Joseph M. Schwab (05:45):
What was it in your educational journey and
your, in your medical trainingand your orthopedic training
that sort of drew you towardsthe hip?
And I recognize you do kneereplacements as well, but
certainly you've done that wholeextra year, focusing on the hip
as an area of specialty.
What was it that, drew yourinterest there?
Atul F. Kamath (06:04):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think, in orthopedics, you gothrough different rotations, you
do some pediatrics, you dooncology.
I, it's a little bit of acombination.
I love the craftsmanshipassociated with joint
replacement surgery.
I liked, taking a problem andfinding out the result, within
30 40 an hour, whatever it is,minutes.
(06:24):
you know what the end product isin sort of your craftsmanship,
at least, from the 30, 000 footview.
And obviously we follow up, wemeasure our outcomes in decades,
not, two months or three months.
But I think as craftsmen, we geta sense of you've made an
immediate difference in thatpatient's life.
And pretty quickly, during thecase, you say, okay, we, this is
a nice product that I'mfashioning here.
(06:45):
So I, really gravitated towardsthe reconstruction part of
orthopedics, and that, tended tofall within hip and knee
replacement and knee surgery.
Now, I think it's alsofortunate.
I met a lot of mentors and thenalso folks that were close to my
training that I said, yeah, thisis neat.
I want to be like them or theyhave just a great way of looking
(07:06):
at the world.
and so you meet mentors thatkind of, you get learned from,
but then also want to fashion,maybe your career upon, In terms
of the young hip world,actually, I think, as going
back, we're, not that old, butin terms of our careers, things
like hip arthroscopy, if youlook at 10 or 15 years ago, was
(07:26):
vastly different than it istoday, right?
So I, do remember in trainingvery skilled surgeons, we would,
I would be a mid level or seniorresident and a very skilled
surgeon was learning ordeveloping their caseload for
hip arthroscopy.
and it would take a couple ofhours, to do things, just in
(07:47):
terms of safely accessing thejoint, doing repairs, doing
other, shaping around the hip.
I, do think as techniques, asimplants, as other
instrumentation has changed, andour understanding and discipline
has changed, volume over time.
Some of these things can takeless amount of time.
I think we can do moresophisticated procedures.
something like a labralreconstruction was inconceivable
(08:09):
to me maybe 10 or 15 years agojust as a trainee but now it's
something that we can dotechnically, in the right hand
with the right volume.
so, for me, it was somethingwhere I got a very little bit of
a taste to, hip arthroscopy orimpingement, I did see a little
bit of osteotomy work and somecartilage work.
but really it was, I think, thatsparked my interest and said,
(08:32):
you know what, I, this is, Ilike the reconstruction part of
it.
I like the anatomy, this wholeemerging field of young hip
surgery and hip preservation, atleast in the U.
S., was more of an emergingfield at that time.
and that was, when I went toMayo Clinic, I really, there was
two major mentors and examplesfor me there.
Robert Trousdale Rafael Sierra,those two were living and
(08:55):
breathing the, for thiscontinuum or spectrum of hip
surgery from young hip surgeryto joint replacement, primary
joint replacement up to revisionsurgery.
So I really saw that wholespectrum and they were doing it
consistently, weekly, in andout, but they really had that.
I brought the caseload, thatexpertise that I said, this can
be done in practice.
And this is really, the cuttingedge of the hip preservation
(09:17):
world, both technically as wellas clinically, and then also
obviously academically as well.
And that, was a little bit, Isaid, listen, I'm going to
really jump into this.
It's fascinating.
It's an emerging field.
There's lots to learn about it.
And that's where applying andthen doing the Mueller
Reconstruction Fellowship inEurope was a stepping stone to
say, listen, I got a taste of itin residency.
(09:39):
I got a full exposure duringfellowship, but to really do
this in practice, as it'sthere's some technically
demanding aspects of it.
And I do feel like you have toimmerse yourself, whether it's
mentors early in your practice.
Or doing an additionalfellowship type training or
additional cadaver labs.
And that's where I said, listen,I'm going to spend some time
(09:59):
additionally after a firstfellowship to do a little bit
more training.
and really at the cradle, as asyou're doing right now and have
been doing for many years,really.
Being in touch with the, fontreally of the young hip world in
Europe, and then Switzerland.
for me, it's, a lifelongjourney, but that interest was
sparked for hip early on.
(10:21):
And I think then I just, itsnowballed from there.
Joseph M. Schwab (10:23):
Yeah, I'll echo the influence that Rob
Trousdale and Raphael Sierrahave.
I think many of us in the hippreserving, surgery realm, owe a
debt of gratitude to a lot ofthe work that they've done and a
lot of the research that they'veput out that has helped.
solidify this area.
moving on a little bit moretowards, your new role with the
(10:47):
anterior hip foundation.
The AHF is lucky to have youcome on this year as one of the
primary officers as thetreasurer.
And so tell me a little bitabout your role.
What is the role of thetreasurer for the AHF?
Atul F. Kamath (11:00):
Yeah.
It's exciting, to be back in aleadership capacity with AHF.
I think it's a dynamicorganization.
Obviously it's growntremendously.
I'm excited for your leadershipin the next year or so, year
plus.
so it's, really nice to see thisdevelopment, and the
organizational roles that havebeen founded.
(11:21):
the treasurer role is really aliaison with industry.
there are the financial aspectsof it, the bookkeeping aspects,
the, fortunately, the AHF is avery healthy organization at
this point in time, both.
membership wise as well asorganizational and conference
wise, but also financially wise.
I think it's really in a goodspot right now.
(11:42):
So there's the financial pieceand the kind of the day to day
books and other or other aspectsof being a treasurer as part of
the organization.
But what also really excites me,is really diving in and learning
from industry, really being aliaison to them.
See how, They can showcase theirproducts, but also push us as
surgeons to say, listen, thinkabout the, hip surgery or
(12:04):
anterior approach from adifferent light, or, hey,
there's new products orinnovation.
And then, in the other aspect,if there are great ideas from
our organizational members.
we take that and can work withindustry more closely, to
develop, to push the boundaries,to think about hip surgery, not
three or five years from now,maybe 10 years from now as well.
So I think that's a huge andexciting role, to really be,
(12:28):
right at the cutting edge oftechnology and innovation, but
really working with our industrypartners, and then allowing them
to showcase their products andtalents and other things that
are.
Annual meeting coming up, but ina little bit, but then also
throughout the year withdifferent events and then ways
to touch points with ourmembership as well.
So I'm really excited for thatpiece of the role as well.
(12:50):
I do have a background.
I have an MBA.
in terms of some of thefinancial stuff and the
organizational leadership typethings, I hope to lend a little
bit of that expertise to theoverall synergy of the group.
but again, also my, interfacingwith industry has been long,
long term, a decade plus interms of working with companies
that are very big, working withcompanies that are small,
(13:10):
companies that are, juststarting up as well.
So they're, even in theirinfancy.
so really along that spectrum,and I think the AHF really tries
to give a voice to the bigcompanies that are players and
have done really big things withindustry.
And then also some of thesmaller companies that.
May have technologies that areblooming or merging, or have a
very niche product that I thinkneeds a voice as well.
(13:32):
So it's really an opportunity tosee that balance across the
industry.
it's really also a nice balanceto leverage some of my
relationships over time and thenour collective relationships to
the AHF and then some of theskill sets that I have in terms
of being this treasurer rolenow.
So I, I'm really looking forwardto it.
Joseph M. Schwab (13:49):
When you're looking with your AHF lens at,
what makes a good industrypartner and what makes a good
relationship between the AHF andan industry partner, what are
the things that are mostimportant to you?
What are you looking for?
both in terms of what the,partner can bring to the
Anterior Hip Foundation and whatthe AHF can bring to that
(14:10):
partner.
Atul F. Kamath (14:11):
Yeah, I think that's a, great question.
I, certainly it is a communityof learning and development.
so that industry partner again,whether big or small, or having
a product that's been on themarket for 10 years, or product
that's just emerging or premarket, it really, I think, has
to go through the lens of howdoes this helping our community,
education wise.
(14:32):
from looking at the hip from adifferent angle, so to speak,
or, our trainees, and then alsothings like research, are there
ways to analyze the techniquesthat we're doing?
How do we understand thembetter?
So I think really, if it's apartnership truly between
industry, that industry partner,really has to allow us tools to
(14:52):
explore those different avenues.
to really push the boundaries ofwhat we're looking at, of
course, is great ways forindustry to partner in terms of
some of the financial aspects,right?
We are an organization thatneeds funding for things like
educational labs or fellowshipsfor traveling surgeons, both
abroad and domestic.
so these are things that, Ithink financially, of course,
(15:13):
industry can help support usthat way, but it's really that
energy and relationship.
And willingness to partner indifferent avenues to really
explore our mission statementsor our core mission pillars of
education, teaching, innovation,camaraderie and community.
I think those are ways that Ithink industry and again, you
don't have to be a multibilliondollar company.
(15:34):
There are relationships that canbe built at the ground level for
smaller companies as well.
And I think it's an excitingpart every year to see the new
companies that are out there.
and they have everything offeredthat the big companies have as
well.
So it's not simply monetarily,but it's really also the
relationships that we're tryingto build as well.
Joseph M. Schwab (15:52):
I for one am really looking forward to seeing
what you do with our industrypartnerships for this next year
and going into the 2025 meeting.
I'm really excited to be workingwith you on the AHF and I'm
really happy that you were ableto take a little bit of time to
talk with me today.
Thanks Atul.
Atul F. Kamath (16:08):
Joe.
Thanks a lot I'm looking forwardto all the work we're going to
do together and I wouldencourage everyone to attend our
meeting and really lookingforward to the industry
relationships We're going tobuild over the next year plus.
Joseph M. Schwab (16:19):
thank you for joining me for another episode
of the AHF podcast.
If you want more information,you can check us out on
Facebook, LinkedIn, or X, or youcan visit us at our website,
anteriorhipfoundation.
com.
Today, my guest is Atul Kamath at the
Cleveland clinic in Cleveland,Ohio.
He's a professor of orthopedicsurgery.
He's been a friend of mine for along time, and I'm very excited
to have him on the AHF podcast.
Before we go any further, Atul,just tell everybody a little bit
about yourself, your background,and your practice.
Atul F. Kamath (00:29):
Thanks, Joe, for having me today.
I'm excited to have a littlechat here.
and, my, background, I'm, grewup in New York, and, New York
City, then Long Island, and thendid, most of my schooling on the
East Coast.
I went to Harvard, undergrad,Harvard Medical School, then
some training in Philadelphiafor general surgery and
(00:50):
orthopedics at Penn.
I then did a fellowship at MayoClinic, so a little bit of a
foray into the Midwest there forme in Rochester, and then I
spent a year, almost a year inEurope, doing the Mueller Hip
Fellowship, in Europe, trainingon young hip reconstruction as
yourself, and then also doingsome other innovative things,
(01:13):
one stage for infection, andreally understanding the hip.
And then orthopedics from aglobal perspective, from
different perspectives.
So that was an interesting timeabroad.
And then I went back to practicein Philadelphia at the
University of Pennsylvania whereI did my orthopedic training.
I spent about five years thereprior to coming to Cleveland,
(01:34):
Ohio, and I've been here forabout six years now.
So that's a little bit of mybackground.
Joseph M. Schwab (01:41):
Primarily doing adult reconstruction.
and still doing hippreservation.
Atul F. Kamath (01:47):
Yeah, I would say probably about 25 percent of
my practice is in the somethingrelated to hip preservation or
joint preservation.
That's hip arthroscopy, pelvicosteotomy, surgical
dislocations, and then otherthings like AVN management or
cartilage treatments around thehip, primarily it, but also some
around the knee, including someosteotomies around the knee as
(02:08):
well.
So
Joseph M. Schwab (02:09):
So when did you get it first involved with
the anterior hip foundation
Atul F. Kamath (02:14):
This is going back several years now I think
in the inaugural, kind ofgroups, that you were part of,
so now we're going backprobably.
2017, where some of thediscussions were, Hey, should we
get a group together thatfocuses around, anterior hip
surgery, but just hip surgery ingeneral?
And how do we understand thatpush innovation, explore
(02:37):
boundaries of anterior hipsurgery?
And as when, looking back, evenfive or seven years, anterior
hip surgery.
didn't have that momentum itreally has now.
It was starting to gather a lotof steam, but so this was a
little bit in, I would say, theearlier days of the Anterior Hip
Foundation, and then also acollective that, of course, a
(02:58):
lot of the founding members hadput together.
Joseph M. Schwab (03:02):
and you were teaching, anterior approach
courses at the time, right?
Atul F. Kamath (03:06):
Yes.
Yes.
So I think, a lot of us, some ofus met through some of these
courses that we were teachingsome of them through projects or
research or trying to look atthe hip and, from the anterior
approach side, I had taughtcourses that were traditional
joint replacement courses, but Iwas also involved in other
things like hip arthroscopy oryoung hip surgery.
(03:27):
And for me, it was looking alongthat spectrum, that continuum
of, can we just not just talkabout anterior hip from the
joint replacement aspect, butreally the anatomy is the same,
pelvic osteotomy, as is justmore of an extension of an
anterior based approach to thehip.
So a lot of the teaching, a lotof the fundamentals, a lot of
the anatomy, and then also thesame, in, terms of the initial
(03:49):
crew that was developing thisorganization, really had that
kind of broader focus of notjust hip replacement, let's,
think about it broadly.
Joseph M. Schwab (03:58):
Yeah.
And it's, you alluded to this,the last decade or two has
really seen a tremendous growthin the field of hip surgery,
anterior approach, hippreserving surgery, in that
evolution that you've seen.
is there anything that you wouldwant to impart maybe to younger
surgeons or is there any lessonsthat you've learned from it that
(04:19):
you would want to share?
Atul F. Kamath (04:20):
Yeah, I think it's, we're going back to the
anatomy, right?
So I think as a comprehensivehip surgeon or just orthopedic
surgeon in general, it's alwaysgood to go back to the
fundamentals of the anatomy.
I think it's, whatever yourtraining bias is or what your
exposure to say, for example, inmy residency, we did a lot of
posterior approaches to the hip.
We did some anterolateralapproaches.
(04:41):
I saw a few, now this is goingback some time, some MIS2
incision approaches.
I saw very little anteriorapproach, but I was always
fascinated that.
Hey, we should probably, as hipsurgeons or, joint replacement
surgeons, we should startunderstanding the hip from
multiple facets.
So for a surgeon just out intraining or in training, or, I
think it's, whereas yourworkhorse approach may be a
(05:03):
posterior approach or workhorseapproach, maybe something else,
you should probably, delve intothe anatomy, learn the
fundamentals, even go to acourse or two just to explore
the anterior approach from theanterior approach perspective.
And then that, I think, makesyou a better or more
comprehensive hip surgeon ingeneral.
and then again, there's thingslike revision surgery, anatomy,
(05:25):
other things that I think we canexpand upon, as we grow in our
learning curve on just insurgery and orthopedics in
general.
I think the fundamentals for theyoung surgeon, just keep an open
mind, think creatively, thinkdifferently, and then just
expose yourself out there.
to different philosophies ortechniques.
I think it's I think that'sprobably the best advice I could
give.
Joseph M. Schwab (05:45):
What was it in your educational journey and
your, in your medical trainingand your orthopedic training
that sort of drew you towardsthe hip?
And I recognize you do kneereplacements as well, but
certainly you've done that wholeextra year, focusing on the hip
as an area of specialty.
What was it that, drew yourinterest there?
Atul F. Kamath (06:04):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think, in orthopedics, you gothrough different rotations, you
do some pediatrics, you dooncology.
I, it's a little bit of acombination.
I love the craftsmanshipassociated with joint
replacement surgery.
I liked, taking a problem andfinding out the result, within
30 40 an hour, whatever it is,minutes.
(06:24):
you know what the end product isin sort of your craftsmanship,
at least, from the 30, 000 footview.
And obviously we follow up, wemeasure our outcomes in decades,
not, two months or three months.
But I think as craftsmen, we geta sense of you've made an
immediate difference in thatpatient's life.
And pretty quickly, during thecase, you say, okay, we, this is
a nice product that I'mfashioning here.
(06:45):
So I, really gravitated towardsthe reconstruction part of
orthopedics, and that, tended tofall within hip and knee
replacement and knee surgery.
Now, I think it's alsofortunate.
I met a lot of mentors and thenalso folks that were close to my
training that I said, yeah, thisis neat.
I want to be like them or theyhave just a great way of looking
(07:06):
at the world.
and so you meet mentors thatkind of, you get learned from,
but then also want to fashion,maybe your career upon, In terms
of the young hip world,actually, I think, as going
back, we're, not that old, butin terms of our careers, things
like hip arthroscopy, if youlook at 10 or 15 years ago, was
(07:26):
vastly different than it istoday, right?
So I, do remember in trainingvery skilled surgeons, we would,
I would be a mid level or seniorresident and a very skilled
surgeon was learning ordeveloping their caseload for
hip arthroscopy.
and it would take a couple ofhours, to do things, just in
(07:47):
terms of safely accessing thejoint, doing repairs, doing
other, shaping around the hip.
I, do think as techniques, asimplants, as other
instrumentation has changed, andour understanding and discipline
has changed, volume over time.
Some of these things can takeless amount of time.
I think we can do moresophisticated procedures.
something like a labralreconstruction was inconceivable
(08:09):
to me maybe 10 or 15 years agojust as a trainee but now it's
something that we can dotechnically, in the right hand
with the right volume.
so, for me, it was somethingwhere I got a very little bit of
a taste to, hip arthroscopy orimpingement, I did see a little
bit of osteotomy work and somecartilage work.
but really it was, I think, thatsparked my interest and said,
(08:32):
you know what, I, this is, Ilike the reconstruction part of
it.
I like the anatomy, this wholeemerging field of young hip
surgery and hip preservation, atleast in the U.
S., was more of an emergingfield at that time.
and that was, when I went toMayo Clinic, I really, there was
two major mentors and examplesfor me there.
Robert Trousdale Rafael Sierra,those two were living and
(08:55):
breathing the, for thiscontinuum or spectrum of hip
surgery from young hip surgeryto joint replacement, primary
joint replacement up to revisionsurgery.
So I really saw that wholespectrum and they were doing it
consistently, weekly, in andout, but they really had that.
I brought the caseload, thatexpertise that I said, this can
be done in practice.
And this is really, the cuttingedge of the hip preservation
(09:17):
world, both technically as wellas clinically, and then also
obviously academically as well.
And that, was a little bit, Isaid, listen, I'm going to
really jump into this.
It's fascinating.
It's an emerging field.
There's lots to learn about it.
And that's where applying andthen doing the Mueller
Reconstruction Fellowship inEurope was a stepping stone to
say, listen, I got a taste of itin residency.
(09:39):
I got a full exposure duringfellowship, but to really do
this in practice, as it'sthere's some technically
demanding aspects of it.
And I do feel like you have toimmerse yourself, whether it's
mentors early in your practice.
Or doing an additionalfellowship type training or
additional cadaver labs.
And that's where I said, listen,I'm going to spend some time
(09:59):
additionally after a firstfellowship to do a little bit
more training.
and really at the cradle, as asyou're doing right now and have
been doing for many years,really.
Being in touch with the, fontreally of the young hip world in
Europe, and then Switzerland.
for me, it's, a lifelongjourney, but that interest was
sparked for hip early on.
(10:21):
And I think then I just, itsnowballed from there.
Joseph M. Schwab (10:23):
Yeah, I'll echo the influence that Rob
Trousdale and Raphael Sierrahave.
I think many of us in the hippreserving, surgery realm, owe a
debt of gratitude to a lot ofthe work that they've done and a
lot of the research that they'veput out that has helped.
solidify this area.
moving on a little bit moretowards, your new role with the
(10:47):
anterior hip foundation.
The AHF is lucky to have youcome on this year as one of the
primary officers as thetreasurer.
And so tell me a little bitabout your role.
What is the role of thetreasurer for the AHF?
Atul F. Kamath (11:00):
Yeah.
It's exciting, to be back in aleadership capacity with AHF.
I think it's a dynamicorganization.
Obviously it's growntremendously.
I'm excited for your leadershipin the next year or so, year
plus.
so it's, really nice to see thisdevelopment, and the
organizational roles that havebeen founded.
(11:21):
the treasurer role is really aliaison with industry.
there are the financial aspectsof it, the bookkeeping aspects,
the, fortunately, the AHF is avery healthy organization at
this point in time, both.
membership wise as well asorganizational and conference
wise, but also financially wise.
I think it's really in a goodspot right now.
(11:42):
So there's the financial pieceand the kind of the day to day
books and other or other aspectsof being a treasurer as part of
the organization.
But what also really excites me,is really diving in and learning
from industry, really being aliaison to them.
See how, They can showcase theirproducts, but also push us as
surgeons to say, listen, thinkabout the, hip surgery or
(12:04):
anterior approach from adifferent light, or, hey,
there's new products orinnovation.
And then, in the other aspect,if there are great ideas from
our organizational members.
we take that and can work withindustry more closely, to
develop, to push the boundaries,to think about hip surgery, not
three or five years from now,maybe 10 years from now as well.
So I think that's a huge andexciting role, to really be,
(12:28):
right at the cutting edge oftechnology and innovation, but
really working with our industrypartners, and then allowing them
to showcase their products andtalents and other things that
are.
Annual meeting coming up, but ina little bit, but then also
throughout the year withdifferent events and then ways
to touch points with ourmembership as well.
So I'm really excited for thatpiece of the role as well.
(12:50):
I do have a background.
I have an MBA.
in terms of some of thefinancial stuff and the
organizational leadership typethings, I hope to lend a little
bit of that expertise to theoverall synergy of the group.
but again, also my, interfacingwith industry has been long,
long term, a decade plus interms of working with companies
that are very big, working withcompanies that are small,
(13:10):
companies that are, juststarting up as well.
So they're, even in theirinfancy.
so really along that spectrum,and I think the AHF really tries
to give a voice to the bigcompanies that are players and
have done really big things withindustry.
And then also some of thesmaller companies that.
May have technologies that areblooming or merging, or have a
very niche product that I thinkneeds a voice as well.
(13:32):
So it's really an opportunity tosee that balance across the
industry.
it's really also a nice balanceto leverage some of my
relationships over time and thenour collective relationships to
the AHF and then some of theskill sets that I have in terms
of being this treasurer rolenow.
So I, I'm really looking forwardto it.
Joseph M. Schwab (13:49):
When you're looking with your AHF lens at,
what makes a good industrypartner and what makes a good
relationship between the AHF andan industry partner, what are
the things that are mostimportant to you?
What are you looking for?
both in terms of what the,partner can bring to the
Anterior Hip Foundation and whatthe AHF can bring to that
(14:10):
partner.
Atul F. Kamath (14:11):
Yeah, I think that's a, great question.
I, certainly it is a communityof learning and development.
so that industry partner again,whether big or small, or having
a product that's been on themarket for 10 years, or product
that's just emerging or premarket, it really, I think, has
to go through the lens of howdoes this helping our community,
education wise.
(14:32):
from looking at the hip from adifferent angle, so to speak,
or, our trainees, and then alsothings like research, are there
ways to analyze the techniquesthat we're doing?
How do we understand thembetter?
So I think really, if it's apartnership truly between
industry, that industry partner,really has to allow us tools to
(14:52):
explore those different avenues.
to really push the boundaries ofwhat we're looking at, of
course, is great ways forindustry to partner in terms of
some of the financial aspects,right?
We are an organization thatneeds funding for things like
educational labs or fellowshipsfor traveling surgeons, both
abroad and domestic.
so these are things that, Ithink financially, of course,
(15:13):
industry can help support usthat way, but it's really that
energy and relationship.
And willingness to partner indifferent avenues to really
explore our mission statementsor our core mission pillars of
education, teaching, innovation,camaraderie and community.
I think those are ways that Ithink industry and again, you
don't have to be a multibilliondollar company.
(15:34):
There are relationships that canbe built at the ground level for
smaller companies as well.
And I think it's an excitingpart every year to see the new
companies that are out there.
and they have everything offeredthat the big companies have as
well.
So it's not simply monetarily,but it's really also the
relationships that we're tryingto build as well.
Joseph M. Schwab (15:52):
I for one am really looking forward to seeing
what you do with our industrypartnerships for this next year
and going into the 2025 meeting.
I'm really excited to be workingwith you on the AHF and I'm
really happy that you were ableto take a little bit of time to
talk with me today.
Thanks Atul.
Atul F. Kamath (16:08):
Joe.
Thanks a lot I'm looking forwardto all the work we're going to
do together and I wouldencourage everyone to attend our
meeting and really lookingforward to the industry
relationships We're going tobuild over the next year plus.
Joseph M. Schwab (16:19):
thank you for joining me for another episode
of the AHF podcast.
If you want more information,you can check us out on
Facebook, LinkedIn, or X, or youcan visit us at our website,
anteriorhipfoundation.
com.
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