CCJR® Legacy

FOUNDER AND EMERITUS DIRECTOR

Dr. A. Seth Greenwald, founder of the Current Concepts in Joint Replacement® (CCJR®) meetings—the largest independent educational events dedicated solely to joint arthroplasty in the world—has transferred their continuity to The Hip Society and The Knee Society, ensuring that this exceptional course remains independent, objective, and always relevant.

Dr. A. Seth Greenwald is the Director of Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. He is an internationally recognized bio-academician, thought leader, and educator with more than five decades of experience as a productive researcher in areas of joint biomechanics and artificial implants. He is the Founder and now, Emeritus Director, of the prestigious Current Concepts in Joint Replacement® meetings.

Dr. Greenwald received his doctorate in orthopaedic and engineering sciences from Oxford University, England in 1970 and holds advanced degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University.

Dr. Greenwald is an active member of many professional associations, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Orthopaedic Association, the Orthopaedic Research Society, the Girdlestone Society, the International Hip Society and both the Hip and Knee Societies. Throughout the span of his career, Dr. Greenwald has held numerous prominent appointments within leading organizations, in both the public and private sectors, including the US Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Greenwald has received many prestigious honors, notably, The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Kappa Delta Award for recognition of outstanding orthopaedic basic science research, The Presidential Medal of the British Orthopaedic Association, The SICOT Medal for lifetime contributions to orthopaedic education and research as well as The Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty (ISTA). He is a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow.

Over the span of his career he has been a frequent contributor to the peer-reviewed literature in areas of biomechanics, device evaluation and cartilage degeneration as well as the regulation and introduction of medical devices. He has mentored numerous graduate students, orthopaedic residents and fellows.

Charles A. Engh, MD pioneered the development of the cementless implant fixation achieved with microporous coatings using sintered metal beads, an innovation that has changed the nature of joint replacement surgery worldwide. He received his bachelor’s degree from Davidson College in North Carolina and attended medical school at the University of Virginia. He completed his orthopaedic residency at Johns Hopkins and a fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC. After his training, Dr. Engh joined his father’s orthopaedic practice in Arlington, VA, with the ambition of specializing in joint replacement surgery. Failures of cemented implants fueled his desire to find another method for implant fixation.

In 1972, Dr. Engh established the Anderson Orthopaedic Research Institute (AORI) which continues to undertake clinical research related to total joint arthroplasty. Reviewing data collected by AORI enabled him to understand and objectively characterize what contributed to the success and failure of hip replacements. He was among the first in the United States to compile data on the outcomes of cementless hip implants and developed radiographic criteria for biologic fixation that remain widely used. Over the course of his career, Dr. Engh championed the long-term durability of biologic fixation achieved via bone ingrowth into extensively porous-coated implants and worked to develop a better understanding of the factors contributing to implant wear and osteolysis with the goal of finding a hip replacement that would serve patients for their entire lives.

Dr. Engh is a past President of The Hip Society. He is a recipient of several awards including The Hip Society’s John Charnley and Otto Aufranc Awards, the AAHKS Lawrence Dorr Award, and The Hip Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gerard (Jerry) A. Engh, MD devoted his career to improving the quality of his patients’ lives through joint arthroplasty. After graduating from Davidson College, he attended medical school at the University of Virginia. Following an internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Dr. Engh spent two years as a major in the Army Medical Corps. He then joined his brother working at The Anderson Orthopaedic Institute, which had been founded by his father, Dr. Otto Anderson Engh.

During the course of his career, Dr. Engh pioneered research and development of implants for knee replacement. Along with several other Anderson physicians, he implemented a prospective database for tracking the outcomes of knee replacement surgery. Using this information coupled with his surgical experience, Dr. Engh developed the Anderson Orthopaedic Research Institute (AORI) Bone Defect Classification System that many clinicians currently use to describe the extent of bone damage in a knee that requires revision surgery. Through his clinical experience, research and dedication to improving knee arthroplasty implants and procedures, Dr. Engh was instrumental in bringing issues related to polyethylene sterilization and wear to the attention of other orthopaedic surgeons and implant manufacturers.

Dr. Engh is a past President of The Knee Society. He is a recipient of multiple Knee Society awards, including two Chitranjan Ranawat Awards as well as the Coventry Award. In 2018, he received the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeon’s (AAHKS) Humanitarian Award for his dedication to medical mission work through Operation Walk Virginia.

During the course of their professional careers, Drs. Charles and Jerry Engh have published more than 300 articles and book chapters on hip and knee joint replacement.