Newswise — MAYWOOD, Il. – Wearing scrubs and using real surgical tools, high school girls will perform mock orthopaedic surgeries on anatomical models during an educational program Saturday, May 16, at Loyola University Medical Center.
On May 15, Loyola will offer a more advanced educational program for first- and second-year female medical students from Chicago-area medical schools.
The programs, sponsored by the Perry Initiative, are intended to help attract women to orthopaedics and engineering. Students will hear talks from orthopaedic surgeons and practice mock procedures, such as suturing, casting, rotator cuff surgery and bone fracture fixation. The Perry Initiative is a non-profit organization that inspires young women to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery and engineering, fields in which women are underrepresented.
About 20 medical students are expected to attend the Friday session and about 40 students from Chicago and suburban high schools are expected to attend Saturday.
Speakers will include orthopaedic surgeons Karen Wu, MD, and Terri Cappello, MD, of Loyola; Monica Kogan, MD, of Rush University Medical Center; and Christina Kuo, MD, of DuPage Medical Group. Also speaking will be Hannah McEwen, PhD, worldwide director for knee product development at DePuy Synthes Joint Reconstruction and Amy Bucha, MS, program coordinator for the Perry Initiative.
The unique Perry Outreach Program curriculum has received national attention for its innovative, career-oriented approach to science and technology education. Loyola brought the program to Chicago for the first time in 2014, and is hosting the program again in 2015.
In a survey of more than 200 high school students who participated in Perry Initiative programs, 92 percent said the programs substantially or modestly increased their interest in pursuing a career in the sciences, and 90 percent showed interest in orthopaedic surgery. More than half of Perry Initiative participants who have gone off to college say they are majoring in premed or related disciplines.
One participant wrote: “I had never considered orthopaedics until this program, and now it is my number one choice.”
The Perry Initiative is named in honor of Dr. Jacquelin Perry, who was among the first 10 women orthopaedic surgeons in the country. She mentored many women and men in the field during a career that lasted from 1952 to 2013.
For more information, visit http://www.perryinitiative.org.
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