prides himself on being able to look at problems from many angles with a solution-oriented attitude. His outof-the-box approach to medicine has allowed him to question and improve upon the ways doctors reconnect tendons, patch up abdominal wounds and repair damaged rotator cuffs. And it all started with an ice climbing screw and a porcupine quill.
An Ice-climbing screw?
When Kubiak was in his residency in New York, he and a few of his colleagues set out to debunk what they perceived to be myths about shoulder surgeries and rotator cuff repair. What he found in his evaluation of the conventional wisdom was startling and frustrating. Startling because the accepted methods of shoulder surgery had an astonishing rate of failure and frustrating because everyone in the orthopedic surgery business knew that but had done nothing to figure out a better method. “One guy stands up in a national meeting in 1975 and says, ‘this is the way we do [these surgeries]’ and the whole community embraces it like it’s religion for the next 30 years.” Call Kubiak a heretic then. He had seen similarities between the physics of the rotator cuff technique and, thanks to his athletic inclinations, the physics of
Sportclimbing doctor
ice climbing screws, and set out to test his observation. According to Kubiak, climbers used to screw ice screws—which are used to anchor climbing ropes into the ice—at a 45-degree angle away from the ground, until an engineer pointed out that the screws should be oriented 45-degrees toward the ground to take full advantage of the load-bearing power
When Dr. Erik Kubiak isn’t working, he’s climbing. He and his climbing partner, Joe Kinder, have put up some of the most difficult sport-climbing routes in the country within a three-hour drive of the University of Utah.
Kubiak says he chose the University of Utah (1) for its innovative strategy toward developing new technologies like his “porcupine sheath,” and (2) for the great rock climbing areas that surround the city.
that are major metropolitan areas near good climbing, there are two that come to the top,” he says. “Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Vegas doesn’t have a medical community of Salt Lake’s caliber so the choice was clear.”
“When you look at places around the United States
Kubiak says he and Kinder are surprised
that they can continue to find new areas with great quality hard rock that sport climber’s prize in such a populated area. “You work here five days a week and then run away to the woods and put up climbing routes,” he says grinning. “Hard climbing routes.”
Top: Kubiack worked with students in the University’s design and engineering schools to help develop his prototype for the device. Bottom: When he’s not wearing a white coat, you can find him on the crags and walls of the Wasatch Front range.
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