MD Update Issue 159

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF KENTUCKIANA PHYSICIANS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS ISSUE #159 WWW.MD-UPDATE.COM

Three of a Kind

VOLUME 15 • #4 • September 2025

Boden sisters bring new energy and teamwork to UofL Health Orthopedics Surgery

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE ORTHOPEDICS AT UK HEALTHCARE RURAL ORTHOPEDICS AT BAPTIST HEALTH LOUISVILLE LEGACY ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON AT CHI FLAGET MEMORIAL IN BARDSTOWN HAND SURGERY AT NORTON HEALTHCARE NEW ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON AT ARH IN HAZARD

Sanjiv Mehta, MD

Jeeshan Faridi, MD

Advancing orthopedic care.

One robotic surgery at a time.

At Flaget Memorial Hospital, our experienced surgeons bring advanced orthopedic care to the Bardstown community. Our robotic-assisted technology uses a CT scan to create a precise, personalized surgical plan. That means smaller incisions, faster healing, better outcomes, and your surgeon stays in control – so you can get back on your feet sooner.

Learn more at CommonSpirit.org/SaintJosephHealth.

Editorial Calendar

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF KENTUCKIANA PHYSICIANS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

2025

ISSUE #160 (October) CANCER CARE

Hematology, Oncology, Plastic Surgery, Radiology, Radiation

ISSUE #161 (December) IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

ENT, Mental Health, Neurology, Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, Pain Medicine, Psychiatry

2026

ISSUE #162 (February) HEART & LUNG HEALTH

Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine, Vascular Medicine, Bariatric Surgery

ISSUE #163 (April) INTERNAL & EXTERNAL SYSTEMS

Dermatology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Geriatric Medicine, Internal Medicine, Integrative Medicine, Infectious Disease Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine, Nephrology, Urology

ISSUE #164 (June) WOMEN & CHILDREN’S HEALTH

OB-GYN, Women’s Cardiology, Oncology, Urology, Pediatrics, Radiology

ISSUE #165 (September) MUSCULOSKELETAL HEALTH

Orthopedics, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Sports Medicine, PT/OT Editorial topics and dates are subject to change To participate, please contact Gil Dunn, Publisher GDUNN@MD-UPDATE.COM 859.309.0720 (direct) • 859.608.8454 (cell) Send press releases to gdunn@md-update.com

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR/PUBLISHER

Welcome to the orthopedic and sports medicine issue of MD-Update.

SEPTEMBER IS THE best month for sports: high school, college, and professional. Baseball, football,

fall soccer, golf, and tennis, with basketball right around the corner. In our experience interviewing orthopedics and sports medicine physicians, many orthopedic doctors played sports and some had sports related injuries that led them to their careers.

That’s some of what you’ll find in this issue of MD-Update, starting with the unique story of Drs. Lauren, Allison, and Stephanie Boden, sisters who played sports together from childhood through college. They shared family photos with us so that we can share them with you.

I hope you enjoy reading their story as well as getting to know our other featured physicians, Drs. Sanjiv Mehta, Carter Cassidy, Jonathon Lindner, and Eric Dennis.

Passing of a Healthcare Leader Carolyn Kurtz, former EVP/CEO of the Lexington Medical Society, passed away on August 9, 2025, after a nine-year battle with cancer. I met Carolyn in 2010 when I started MD-Update. She was kind, gracious, and thoughtful. I remember her saying about doctors that “It might take them a while to get used to you because they’re not that familiar with, or comfortable with, the media.”

Having Carolyn introduce me to some Lexington doctors and vouch for me was very helpful to our fledgling publication.

We will have more on Carolyn in our October issue.

Chandler Dunn Update After 20 years of playing baseball including the Cal Ripken World Series, high school, junior college, college, and the professional minor league USPBL, my son Chandler has switched over to men’s slow-pitch softball in Southern Florida. I watched him play in Georgia at a multi-state tournament. The action is fast. Hitting is ferocious. Defense is the key to winning. “Hitting is still a skill, even in slow pitch. Getting somebody out is the hard part,” Chandler says.

The 2025–26 MD-Update editorial calendar is on the preceding page. When you see your specialty and you have a story to tell, contact me. If your specialty isn’t included, that’s another reason to reach out to me.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

2 MD-UPDATE

Volume 15, Number 4

ISSUE #159

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Chandler with some of his teammates.

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Still playing ball and having fun.

Yours truly and Chandler.

Until next time, all the best,

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ISSUE #159

CONTENTS

10 Three of a Kind

Boden sisters bring new energy and teamwork to UofL Health Orthopedics Surgery

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEXANDRA ROGERS

4

HEADLINES

SPECIAL SECTION

28 MENTAL WELLNESS

8

FINANCE

14 LEGACY ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON AT CHI FLAGET MEMORIAL IN BARDSTOWN 19 ORTHOPEDICS AT UK HEALTHCARE 21 HAND SURGERY AT NORTON HEALTHCARE 24 RURAL ORTHOPEDICS AT BAPTIST HEALTH LOUISVILLE 26 NEW ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON AT ARH IN HAZARD

30

EVENTS

32

NEWS

10 COVER STORY

14 ORTHOPEDICS

19 ORTHOPEDICS

21 ORTHOPEDICS

24 ORTHOPEDICS

26 ORTHOPEDICS ISSUE #159 3

Headlines

Steven Stack, MD, Is New Secretary of Health & Family Services FRANKFORT Steven J. Stack, MD, MBA, FACEP took on the role of secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services on June 30 after serving as commissioner of the KY Department for Public Health since February 2020. He resides in Lexington ​ and is a board-certified emergency physician.

For over 20 years, Dr. Stack has been a leader in the medical field.

He has served on boards of directors and in senior leadership roles for numerous geographic and specialty medical societies. In 2006, he was the first emergency physician ever elected to the American Medical Association board of trustees, subsequently serving as board chair and in 2015-2016 as the AMA’s youngest president since 1854.

Stack has served as medical director of multiple emergency departments, including Saint Joseph East in Lexington, Saint Joseph Mt. Sterling, and Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He has over 18 years of experience in emergency medicine, including administrative and clinical practice, in 4 MD-UPDATE

Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

In 2018, Dr. Stack joined the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business as an adjunct professor. In this role, he lectures on healthcare policy and the mechanics of advocacy to physicians in the Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program as well as to both physician and non-physician healthcare leaders enrolled in executive education programs.

Stack has focused experience in health information technology (IT). A nationally recognized advocate, he bridges bedside care with governmental policy and has served on numerous federal advisory committees for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) from 2010-2016. Additionally, he served from 2012-2016 as board member and secretary of eHealth Initiative, a Washington, DC-based non-profit association improving health care through the advancement of health IT. His other areas of expertise include emergency department and hospital management, health system reform, physician licensure and PHOTO PROVIDED BY KY DEPT. FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

regulation, and healthcare anti-trust issues.

Stack has extensive experience in policymaking and advocacy at federal, state, and county levels before legislative bodies and executive branch regulatory agencies. He is also a skilled public spokesperson and longtime advocate for universal access to affordable and high-quality healthcare.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Stack graduated magna cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., where he was a Henry Bean Scholar for classical studies.

He then returned to Ohio to complete medical school and emergency medicine residency at The Ohio State University before moving to Memphis to begin his clinical practice. In 2006, Stack and his family relocated to Lexington.

And, in December 2017, he completed his MBA at UT Knoxville Haslam College of Business. Stack is married and the proud father of one daughter.

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Headlines

KMA Members “Lead With Every STEP” During 2025 Annual Meeting Jiapeng Huang, MD, inaugurated as 175th KMA president

BY EMILY SCHOTT, KMA COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR THE KENTUCKY MEDICAL Association (KMA)

held its annual meeting on August 22 and 23 at the Louisville Marriott East. Jiapeng Huang, MD, PhD, a Louisville anesthesiologist, was installed as the 175th president of the Association during the event, which brought together physicians of all specialties from across the Commonwealth.

KMA members also elected other officers during the 2025 meeting. Christine Ko, MD, of Lexington was elected president-elect, and Ishmael Stevens, MD, of Ashland was elected

6 MD-UPDATE

vice president. Danesh Mazloomdoost, MD, of Lexington was elected speaker of the KMA House of Delegates, and Heidi Koenig, MD, of Louisville was elected vice speaker.

Huang currently serves as chief scientific officer and associate dean for clinical research at UofL Health, as well as deputy director of the Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center and professor and vice chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. He is editor of the British Journal of Anesthesia, director of the American Board of Anesthesiology, director of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and director of the Anesthesia Quality Institute.

Huang previously served as vice president of the KMA Board of Trustees and is a graduate of the 2018 class of the Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute (KPLI).

During his inauguration comments, Huang emphasized the need for physicians to continue to be involved in organized medicine and called for members to take advantage of opportunities for leadership and connection.

“There is so much more physicians can do outside of our clinical practices that could impact our patients and our profession in very meaningful ways. Together, we can make the world a better place through our efforts. But

Headlines

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT J iapeng Huang, MD, PhD, a Louisville anesthesiologist, was installed as the 175th President of the Kentucky Medical Association.

F rom the Lexington Medical Society, Hope Cottrill, MD, LMS president, Christine Ko, MD, LMS president-elect and Danesh Mazloomdoost, MD, and Heidi Koenig, UofL, at the KMA annual meeting M ichael Oghia, MD, ARH and Don Stacy, MD, ARH, delegates, and trustees from District 14.

T odd Rickett, MD, PhD, Melissa Wise, MD, Kevin O’Bryan, MD with Forefront Dermatology in Louisville at KMA annual meeting

we must take that leap into opportunities that could help us do that, and we must encourage others to do so as well.”

The theme of the 2025 annual meeting was “Kentucky Physicians: Leading With Every Step,” which echoed the theme of the KMA’s latest public health campaign, “Small STEPS, Big Impact.” The effort seeks to encourage Kentuckians to make small changes to their lifestyles that can add up to a big improvement in their overall health, while the meeting theme celebrated the impact physicians are making with every action they take, whether in patient care, advocacy, or leadership.

During the event’s educational symposium, held on Aug. 22, attendees welcomed keynote speaker Jordan Grumet, MD, also known

as “Doc G.” Author of The Purpose Code, Grumet focused on how taking small steps towards purpose can make a huge impact. All attendees to the education session received a complimentary copy of The Purpose Code. In addition, members heard from Sarah Police, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, who discussed nutritional strategies for positive health outcomes, as well as a panel of physician ambassadors from the Small STEPS, Big Impact campaign, including Lesley Kellie, DO, Susan Bushelman, MD, and Haider Abbas, MD. That evening, graduates of the KMA’s award-winning Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute gathered for a special “Celebrating Our Stars” VIP dinner, which

recognized the many achievements and success of program alumni. Attendees heard from keynote speaker and secretary for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Steven Stack, MD, who presented “Leadership When Times are Tough.”

Attendees to the annual meeting also put into practice priorities of the Small STEPS, Big Impact program by participating in a “Stretch and Refresh” yoga session, led by campaign physician ambassador Monalisa Tailor, MD, on Saturday morning prior to meeting events for the day.

KMA members are asked to save the date for the 2026 annual meeting, which will be held August 22 and 23, 2026, at the Louisville Marriott East.

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ISSUE #159 7

Finance

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

BY D. SCOTT NEAL, CPA, CFP®, CEPA

I HAVE OFTEN remarked that I teach and write

best about those things that I most need to learn. My brother and I inherited quite a lot of “stuff” from our parents, much of which is still stored in my basement, even though they both died nearly 10 years ago. So, it was with more than a passing interest that I read Margareta Magnusson’s The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (2018). In it she offers readers an accessible and poignant meditation on aging, memory, and the responsibilities we carry in the things we leave behind. With equal parts candor, wit, and cultural commentary, Magnusson introduces readers to the Scandinavian practice of döstädning, a term that translates literally to “death cleaning.”

While this might strike some as morbid, the book reveals it to be an act of profound love, both for oneself and for one’s survivors, certainly things to think about.

Swedish death cleaning is not merely a process of decluttering but a thoughtful cultural tradition that acknowledges death as a natural part of life and seeks to relieve others of the burdens we might leave behind. It is distinct from other popular organizing philosophies—most notably Marie Kondo’s Japaneseinspired KonMari method—because it is not focused on personal joy or aesthetics, but on legacy, responsibility, and relationships.

8 MD-UPDATE

Magnusson grounds her writing in the deeply pragmatic ethos of Scandinavian culture: simplicity, minimalism, and foresight.

The book is as much a reflection on how we live as it is about how we prepare to die. Yet despite the seriousness of the topic, her tone is gentle, lighthearted, and often humorous. She manages to engage with difficult subjects— aging, mortality, and family obligations— without resorting to sentimentality or despair.

These are critical functions of estate planning that don’t require legal documents.

The book’s structure is straightforward and conversational. Rather than adhering to a rigid organizational format, Magnusson proceeds by way of personal anecdote, reflection, and practical advice. She uses her own experiences, including the deaths of her husband and several friends as a lens through which to explore the emotional and logistical challenges of handling other people’s belongings.

Magnusson’s writing style is characterized by brevity, clarity, and warmth. Her voice is that of a wise elder, a friend or grandmother figure who has lived through much and wishes to spare others unnecessary pain. The book is less manual and more a friendly conversation—a form that suits its subject matter well. She avoids prescriptions, offering instead guidelines and encouragement, trusting that readers will adapt the method to their own needs and cultural contexts.

One of the most compelling aspects of the book is its sensitivity to the emotional attachments people have to their possessions. Magnusson never trivializes these attachments, but she does challenge readers to consider their implications. “Someone will have to clean up after you. Who do you think that will be?” she asks, pointedly but kindly.

The strength of her argument lies in its ethical dimension. Death cleaning is not a

minimalist aesthetic or a moralistic purge—it is a relational practice. Magnusson repeatedly emphasizes the importance of sparing one's loved ones the psychological and physical toll of sifting through mountains of stuff after death. She describes the guilt, confusion, and exhaustion that often accompany such tasks, and offers death cleaning as a gift: a way to unburden those we care about most.

This emotional intelligence is apparent in her advice on what to discard and what to keep. She recommends maintaining a small box of items with personal meaning that “only you can appreciate,” acknowledging that not all sentimental value can—or should—be preserved by others. She invites readers to consider not only what they leave behind, but the stories they tell with their belongings.

The book includes pragmatic suggestions, such as starting with less emotionally charged items (like linens or tools) and moving on to more difficult possessions (such as photographs or letters) only after gaining confidence. She advocates for involving family in the process, both to share memories and to understand what items others might value.

Magnusson encourages gifting meaningful items while one is still alive, allowing the giver to enjoy the act and the recipient to receive the full weight of the gesture.

Her advice is seasoned with dry humor.

For instance, she speaks candidly about how to deal with personal items of an intimate nature, “If you don’t want your children to find it, destroy it” and shares her own trials of emptying out her late husband’s studio and home. In doing so, she models the vulnerability and honesty the process requires.

The greatest strength of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning is its tone: compassionate without being cloying, direct without being harsh. Magnusson is not afraid to speak

Finance

plainly about death and its consequencshe invites us to confront it—gracefully, es, but she does so with a warmth that “Preparation for death can be an act humorously, and responsibly. makes readers feel cared for. In an age While not a comprehensive guide of liberation — not just for those we marked by consumerism and denial of to organizing, the book succeeds as a leave behind, but for ourselves.” mortality, this small book offers a rare philosophical companion and a heartand valuable counter-narrative. felt prompt to begin conversations that Another key contribution is its meandering format. Furthermore, Magnusson’s matter. Its central message—that the implicit challenge to Western cultural assump- examples are drawn mostly from her own life, way we manage our possessions is also a reflections about aging and legacy. Magnusson and some critics might argue that the advice is tion of how we manage our relationships—is proposes that preparation for death can be an best suited for those with certain levels of priv- a lesson worth remembering, no matter one’s act of liberation—not just for those we leave ilege—such as stable housing, access to family, age or stage of life. behind, but for ourselves. In her telling, death and the leisure to engage in such a process.

For those open to reflecting on mortality cleaning is not about giving up; it is about Additionally, though Magnusson addresses as a means to live more intentionally and choosing how we are remembered and taking the emotional dimensions of death cleaning generously, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death control of our narrative while we can. with grace, there is less attention paid to the psy- Cleaning is a good and quick read.

Moreover, the book invites reflection on chological complexity of grief and trauma that what matters most: not the accumulation of can accompany both the death of loved ones and Scott Neal of Lexington, Kentucky is a Senior Wealth Advisor of Mercer Advisors, a Denver-based financial goods, but the preservation of relationships, the process of confronting one’s own mortality. advisory firm. He can be reached by calling 1-800memories, and peace of mind.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning is a 344-9098. Any opinions expressed by the author are Some readers may find the book’s scope quiet, thoughtful, and wise book. In its pages, his own and not necessarily those of Mercer Advisors. limited. It is not a comprehensive manual for Margareta Magnusson offers a cultural tradi- The information is believed to be accurate but is not decluttering, nor does it offer a step-by-step tion adapted for a global audience hungry for guaranteed or warranted by Mercer Advisors. Mercer system. Those seeking a prescriptive or struc- clarity and meaning amid the chaos of consum- Global Advisors Inc. is registered with the Securities and tured plan may be disappointed by the loose, er life. Rather than avoid the topic of death, Exchange Commission.

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Stephanie Boden, MD, Lauren Boden, MD, and Allsion Boden, MD, are orthopedic surgeons at UofL Health.

Three of a Kind

Boden sisters bring new energy and teamwork to UofL Health Orthopedics Surgery

BY LIZ CAREY LOUISVILLE It’s not every day you get to work

with your sisters, and it’s even more rare when you’re one of a set of triplets and you’re all in medicine.

But for Drs. Lauren, Stephanie, and Allison Boden, being in the same field with family members is just part of their life. The three sisters work together at UofL Health in orthopedic surgery – Lauren as a spine surgeon, Stephanie as sports medicine surgeon, and Allison as a foot and ankle surgeon. All three are assistant professors of orthopedic surgery at the UofL School of Medicine, and Allison is also the associate program director for the orthopedic surgery residency program.

Working together comes easily, as these three have worked together since their days on the baseball diamond growing up. At one point, the three girls and their younger sister were the 10 MD-UPDATE

entire infield for their high school and college softball teams. While there wasn’t a plan for them to work together, the opportunity presented itself and was too good to pass up.

The three came to UofL Health after Lauren reached out to the chair, Nicholas Ahn, MD, about a job.

“We didn’t think it was going to be possible to work in the same city, let alone the same health system,” Lauren says. “At the end of the call, [Dr. Ahn] basically said there was room to hire all three of us if we got along and were interested, and we were like, yes, we’re best friends, and we would love to make something like that work.” The three then all came to interview formally, and felt it was a great fit.

The Boden sisters grew up in a suburb of Atlanta and all three earned their bachelor’s degrees from Pomona College in Claremont,

California. They played softball, basketball, and golf at Pomona before returning to Emory University School of Medicine for their medical degrees.

After medical school, the three went their separate ways for training. Lauren completed her orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania and then went on to complete a combined orthopedic and neurological spine fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Stephanie completed her residency at the University of Pittsburgh and then went on to do a sports medicine and shoulder fellowship at Rush University in Chicago. While in fellowship, she served as a team physician for the Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, and DePaul University and currently specializes in minimally invasive arthroscopic and advanced

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEXANDRA ROGERS AND PROVIDED BY STEPHANIE BODEN

Cover Story

The Boden sister have been teammates in baseball, basketball, and golf in childhood, high school, and college.

open reconstruction procedures of the shoulder, elbow, and knee.

Allison completed her residency at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. She was named the Outstanding Resident of the Year during her PGY-5 year and then completed a foot and ankle fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

The Road to Louisville Coming to UofL Health started with a phone call, Lauren says.

“I actually set up a phone call to just learn about Louisville and the program here,” she says. “At the end of the call, Dr. Ahn asked what my sisters were up to. And I was like, oh, we’re all actually looking for academic jobs.”

When the opportunity came for them to work together, they each came to the decision on their own, they say.

“We all came and interviewed at UofL Health and liked it for our own individual reasons,” Lauren says. “We ended up kind of picking it alone but also knowing that we’d be here together.”

The sisters come from a long line of doctors. Both of their parents are doctors – their

father, Scott Boden, MD, is an orthopedic spine surgeon, and their mother, Mary Caulfield, MD, Boden, was an internist.

While their father was the first in his family to graduate from college, many family members on their mother’s side were doctors.

Their mother’s parents were also doctors – the grandfather, Walter Harry Caulfield, Jr., MD, was an interventional cardiologist, and their grandmother, Mary Sisk Caulfield, MD, was a general practitioner whose father, Walter Harry Caulfield, MD, the Boden sisters’ great-grandfather, was a general surgeon. Two of their uncles are also in medicine – one is a plastic surgeon, Walter Harry Caulfield, III, MD, and the other is an interventional cardiologist, Michael Caulfield, MD. Both of them also married physicians – an orthopedic hand surgeon, Kathryn Caulfield, MD, and a neurologist, Anna Caulfield, MD. Even their younger sister, Susanne Boden, MD, just completed an orthopedic surgery residency and will be completing a hand and upper extremity surgery fellowship at Wake Forest this upcoming academic year.

Medicine, Lauren says, was just something they grew up with. But working together at the same hospital didn’t always seem to be something that could happen, Allison says.

When asked to come interview in Louisville

the sisters welcomed the idea. “We were like, at the very least, we’ll have a weekend together, because we’d been living in separate cities for the prior five and a half years at that point,” Allison says. “But once we got here, it seemed like the best fit for all of us.”

“I knew I was going to do something in medicine from the time I was a kid,” Lauren says. “I went straight from wanting to be a professional baseball player to wanting to be a doctor. I didn’t have a whole lot of other things I was even interested in… For a while.

I thought I was going to be a sports surgeon, then I did my spine rotation, and absolutely loved it. Even though my dad’s a spine surgeon, and I was trying to do something different, I ended up just liking it too much to do anything else.”

Orthopedics Has a PatientRich Population Since the three sisters started at UofL Health in September 2024, they have been able to find their niche.

Lauren says she works with a wide variety of patients from young athletes with spine fractures or spondylolisthesis, to middle aged patients with herniated disks, and older patients with generative changes like arthritis or myelopathy.

ISSUE #159 11

Cover Story

“It’s a bit of everything, which is one of the reasons I like the spine so much,” she says.

“Sometimes it’s something that’s been slow and degenerative over time, and sometimes it’s an acute trauma. I enjoy finding ways to help patients feel better and get back on their feet.”

For Stephanie, the love of sports medicine came after a sports injury. She says she was initially thinking about a career in teaching until she hurt her shoulder playing softball after her freshman year in college. After rehab failed to help, she ended up having shoulder surgery.

“That was probably my first exposure to orthopedics on the patient side,” she says.

“Growing up, we’d had a couple broken noses, a couple concussions, nothing else too crazy, but when I was able to recover from surgery and get back to softball – that was a big moment for me. I was like, ‘Okay, maybe medicine is kind of cool.’”

An internship at the Women’s Sports Medicine program at the Hospital for Special Surgery during a summer in college allowed her to work with female sports surgeons, which is when she feels things started to click and she became excited for the possibility of becoming an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon. This experience solidified her choice to apply to medical school.

Stephanie says she’s able to see a wide variety of patients as well. Her shoulder patients range in age from kids with overuse injuries to older patients with arthritis. Most of her shoulder practice involves minimally invasive shoulder scopes as well as open complex shoulder reconstruction and shoulder replacements. For her work on knees, she sees a range of patients including those with ligament tears, meniscal and cartilage injuries, with a special focus on joint preservation.

Allison says she knew from a young age that she was going to be a doctor. After a summer shadowing orthopedic surgeons at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, she knew that orthopedics was what she wanted to do.

“Growing up with surgeons in the family and watching a lot of medical TV shows, we had seen operating rooms from afar… but the in-person experience kind of solidified my decision to go to medical school. I really liked the hands-on aspect of surgery,” she says.

12 MD-UPDATE

Lauren Boden, MD, is a spine surgeon at UofL Health.

When it came to choosing a specialty, her family’s medical background came into play.

Lauren Boden pitched and “With my dad being in orthoplayed shortstop in high school. pedics, I thought I’d try to find something else but that didn’t really last very long,” Allison says.

“I would have told you that I was most likely going into sports because we had Orthopedics Has a Bright Future experience with sports. I really liked the patient For now, the three are settling into their population. I liked the minimally invasive aspect current positions, while looking to the future. of most of the surgeries. But then I did a rotaLauren says she’s looking forward to changtion on foot and ankle, and I realized that there es within her spine surgery specialty. was a large breadth of things that you can do “I think the main thing for spine is that – trauma, sport-focused surgeries, total ankle the surgeries in the late 90s and early 2000s replacements… and I liked the breadth of cases were fusion-based surgeries, and now there’s a that you could do.” push towards less invasive surgery and motion

Cover Story

Along with baseball and basketball, Allison led the Pomona College golf team.

Allison Boden, MD, is a foot and ankle specialist at UofL Health.

Stephanie Boden joined her sisters on the golf team at Pomona College.

sparing techniques,” she says. “I know of a couple different types of arthroplasty and arthroplasty equivalents, where you don’t necessarily have to fuse. There are also endoscopic techniques where you’re actually using a scope to visualize the spine, which is about as minimally invasive as you can get.”

Stephanie is looking forward continued advancements with sports medicine, joint preservation, biologics, and artificial intelligence. With improvements in technology, surgical planning and execution continue to improve and sports surgeries are becoming increasingly patient-specific. In addition, she is incorporating her undergraduate psychology degree into her sports medicine practice.

“There’s a lot of work actually going into psychology and sports medicine right now, and there are a lot of things that we didn’t really think about in the past, as far as psychological readiness, not only for getting back to a sport, but also for surgery and expectations.

So, I think we’re paying a lot more attention to the psychology of things right now. It’s definitely something that I take into account and try to give patients and their families a full layout of all the expectations ahead of time.”

For Allison, the foot and ankle work she does is constantly changing with new and improved technology.

“If you look at hot topics, right now minimally invasive surgery is becoming more popular she says. “Additionally, there is more work being done on patient specific instrumentation. I hope that there will be robots for total ankles upcoming in the next few years because I think that may help improve the accuracy and precision in making bony cuts and potentially balancing the ankle. In the sports world, I think there’s an emphasis on figuring out biologics in the foot and ankle space.”

The Patient’s Quality of Life Stephanie Boden, MD, is a sports medicine, shoulder, elbow, and knee specialist at UofL Health.

Through it all, the sisters are motivated to continue to help their patients find a better quality of life after injury or disease.

“It is rewarding to get patients back on their feet and doing the activities they love. That’s enough to keep me going, and I love it” says Allison.

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Orthopedics

On July 1, 20205, Dr. Sanjiv Mehta became the chief of medical staff at Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown, Kentucky.

A Date with Destiny

A twist of fate led Dr. Sanjiv Mehta to become an orthopedic surgeon

BY JIM KELSEY BARDSTOWN Sanjiv Mehta, MD, grew up in

Chandigarh, India, the son of two physicians – his father was a gastroenterologist and his mother was a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Inspired by them, he began his own journey into the medical field. He went to medical school in India, which was part of the plan, but completing an orthopedic residency in Chandigarh was not.

“In India, we were in a general internship program before we received our medical degree,” Mehta says. “I had graduated number two in my medical school class, and it was assumed I would go into internal medicine. It was 1985-86, and at that point, orthopedics was barely a recognized specialty in India. In India, they used to say, ‘All the dumb guys go into orthopedics.’”

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Internal medicine was the plan, but a twist of fate changed everything on one night during his internship. A patient came in with a mid-shaft femur fracture, and the on-site orthopedic surgeon was already treating another patient with an identical injury.

Adding to the urgency was the surgeon’s social calendar.

“The surgeon told me, ‘I need you to do this surgery with me because I have a hot date tonight,’” Mehta says. “He said, ‘I’m going to be yelling directions to you and you’re going to follow my directions with no questions asked.’ One hour later, I had a rod in place in the femur and I closed the wound. I was shaking like a leaf. He slapped me on the back and said, ‘Good job, man.’ He made his date that night and married that girl.”

The next day, Mehta checked on his patient, happy to see that he was recovering well.

PHOTOS BY MARK MAHAN

“He had a smile on his face. He was thankful. All the pain was gone,” Mehta says. “He asked, ‘Can you release me to go home? If I don’t go back home and start working, my family will starve.’ So, I gave him crutches and pain pills and released him.”

Seeing the impact that he could have as an orthopedic surgeon, Mehta sensed that was what he was meant to do.

“I looked up to the heavens and said, ‘God, I thank you for showing me the light.’ That’s what I wanted to be – an orthopedic surgeon.

I never looked back.”

Holistic Approach to Orthopedics Mehta began orthopedic training at the University of Louisville in 1993 and has been a board-certified orthopedic surgeon since 1998.

He credits UofL professor and physician David Seligson, MD, for being his mentor and guru.

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“I still seek some guidance from him every now and then with some tough cases,” Mehta says.

Mehta also points to his family for inspiring his journey. He constantly seeks inspiration from his wife and soulmate, Susan. In addition to the example set by his parents, his sister is a radiologist in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and her husband is an orthopedic surgeon. Mehta’s daughter Aakriti Carrubba is a minimally invasive gynecological surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. His younger son Aditya recently graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a master’s in public health. Mehta himself just earned his master’s in health care administration from Cornell last December.

“I’m 60-plus now. I have zero cynicism about medicine. Some doctors become cynical and burnt out. I don’t know what those terms mean,” he says. “My wife, Susan, is a rock for me. She inspires me. She is an RN by training and is part of a startup company. They are dealing with holistic, metabolic health, and healthy lifespans.”

Mehta finds value in educating his own patients in the importance of overall health and successful recovery from surgery.

“You cannot get yourself to a healthy place just by replacing one knee,” he says. “You really need to go holistically, affecting every aspect of your life. I have become a very passionate advocate of health styles.”

Technology and General Orthopedics At Saint Joseph Health’s Flaget Memorial Hospital in Bardstown, Mehta performs a wide range of orthopedic procedures, including hand surgery such as carpal tunnel and trigger finger release. He does joint replacements including anterior hip replacements, total shoulder arthroplasties, and total knee replacements. He also sees trauma cases such as fractures.

Many of these surgeries are performed with the welcome assistance of artificial intelligence.

“I am a huge proponent of technology,” says Mehta, who has done approximately 450 robotic-assisted knee replacements since 2022.

“The robotic technology takes our skills to the next level and makes me a better surgeon. It makes me appreciate things I cannot see. For example, when I do a knee replacement, it is my job to put the knee perfectly balanced between the hip and the ankle of the patient.

However, I don’t see the hip. I don’t see the ankle. I can just see the knee in my vision, but the robot can see it. That helps me to do a much better job with knee alignments. How it translates to a patient is that my incisions are smaller, the blood loss is less, and we are able to discharge a large majority of our patients to go home same day.”

Mehta not only welcomes the aid of artificial intelligence, he is actively advocating for its increased use to better serve patients.

Orthopedics

“Artificial intelligence is helping us to acquire more and more data,” he says. “It will tell us how quickly patients went back to work, how quickly they were able to get back to their lives. That data will tell us about the longevity of the implants.”

In the future, Mehta hopes to begin implanting trackers into patients’ knees to track step counts, cadences, physical therapy, mobility, and potential infection. “I will get those signals on my phone and laptop, and will get those patients back in to see me earlier so I can intervene earlier if the joints are failing,” he says. “This will also strengthen telemedicine. I have patients who travel 50 to 100 miles to see me.”

Gratitude and Empathy Mehta’s genuine desire to care for his patients is transparent. In discussing their course of treatment and the importance of overall health, he speaks to them passionately about how to improve their health. “I credit my team in the office, the OR, and physical therapy for great outcomes and high level of patient satisfaction,” he said. “I could not do this without the ladies that back me up!”

“Do it for somebody, do it for yourself. I use these lines in my office just about every day,” he says. “My level of fulfillment has no boundaries. I feel so fulfilled every day. The gratitude I get back by serving humanity is my reward. There’s not a single day that goes by that I don’t feel like I’m helping somebody, and that I don’t have gratitude to my good Lord, to say ‘Lord, thank you for putting me in this place where I can influence people in a positive way.’”

SAINT JOSEPH MEDICAL GROUP ORTHOPEDICS 875 Pennsylvania Avenue Bardstown, KY 40004

502-348-5685 From left to right: Lennea Gies, RN, nursing supervisor; Denise Findley, RN, director, social services at Flaget; Dr. Mehta, and Krista Bartley, RN.

Fax 502-331-4631

ISSUE #159 15

Orthopedics and Sports Medi

The Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) Orthopedics and Sports Medicine team is dedicated to helping you return to optimal function and quality of life through comprehensive, patient-centered care.

We specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of conditions affecting the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Our services include both non-surgical and surgical options, such as ultrasound-guided injections and total joint replacement, tailored to each patient’s specific needs.

To learn more about ARH Orthopedics & Sports Medicine or to find a provider near you, visit arh.org.

icine at ARH Join our team •Onboarding incentives up to $200,000 •Collegial work environment • Integrated physician lead network • Work life balance To learn more about orthopedic surgeon career opportunities at ARH go to arhphysiciancareers.com

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Orthopedics

Craftsmanship and Compassion

Carter Cassidy, MD, orthopedic spine surgeon and department chair, leads the UK HealthCare Orthopedics team

BY LIZ CAREY LEXINGTON Ryan Carter Cassidy, MD, says leading the UK HealthCare Orthopedics

team is always about maintaining high standards. For him, the two key elements of providing the highest level of care center around craftsmanship and compassion.

“Craftsmanship and being a professional and doing good work, maintaining your medical education, going to meetings, learning new things, that’s what I expect from my team,” he says. “And there’s also compassion. We’re here to help people, and we’re here to listen and to figure out what the problem is. Sometimes it’s hard stuff. We want to be able to do all of that, from the easy to the hard. We’re here to take care of Kentucky.”

Cassidy came to UK HealthCare more than 20 years ago. He went to college at Youngstown State University in Ohio for a combined bachelor of science and medical school program. There he attended an intensive year-round two years of undergraduate study, culminating in receiving his bachelor’s degree, followed by four years of medical school.

After graduating, Cassidy came to UK for his orthopedic surgery residency in 2000. Later, he completed an additional spine fellowship at UK. Since 2006, he has served as a member of the faculty at UK, providing orthopedic spine care.

Currently, he sees patients at the UK HealthCare Good Samaritan Spine and Joint Clinic and is the Dyad partner and director for UK’s musculoskeletal strategy and intake team. He previously served as the director of the orthopedic surgery residency program.

Unlike some in the medical profession, Cassidy didn’t come from a family of doctors or healthcare professionals. “My mom was a teacher, so it was instilled in me early that you go to college and you learn,” he says. “Medicine became an interest in high school.”

Cassidy recalls that a during his senior year in high school, one of the athletic trainers that visited his school was injured, and he was asked if he wanted to view the knee replacement surgery. Later the same day, Cassidy himself was injured and returned to the ER where the surgeon who had done the knee replacement operation worked on his broken wrist. It was there his love for medicine was solidified.

Once he started medical school, he realized orthopedics Carter Cassidy, MD, orthopedic was the specialty he wanted to pursue. spine surgeon and orthopedic “I had the fortune, or misfortune, of really loving department chair at UK HealthCare. all of the rotations that I did,” he says. “But I just kept coming back to orthopedics. I think I just love the mechanics of it. When you get in and see the functional restoration you can give the PHOTO BY JAMILEE CURTIS, UK HEALTHCARE PR

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Orthopedics

people, it just it hits home… it feels like the right thing.”

After his residency was over, he was asked to consider studying the spine.

“My mentor at the time, Dr. Will Schaffer, was here at UK, and he said, ‘Why don’t you just stay here and just work with me for a year?’

So, I did,” Cassidy says. “Then that led to him saying, ‘Hey, why don’t you stay on and join as a partner in the practice?’ And here I am.”

Much has changed since he started out more than 20 years ago.

“The pedicle screws that we put in all the time, they weren’t even around in the 80s.

It was the mid- to late-90s that the equipment and instrumentation that we use really modernized,” Cassidy says. “There wasn’t as much known 30, 40 or 50 years ago. To fix a broken bone, you had to put a cast on, and if you didn’t like how it was lining up, you had to wedge the cast. Now, nobody really loves taking care of fractures like that, because it’s really time consuming. The more modern operative techniques, modern technology, has really made it a lot more appealing. We can just do more for people now than we could 30 years ago.”

Wearing Multiple Hats As department chair, Cassidy says he wants the department to be the pinnacle of care in eastern and central Kentucky. “We are an evolving department, full of people who work tirelessly every day to restore function to our patients,” Cassidy says.

“As long as our daily goal is providing the best patient care, as well as creating a commitment to excellence in education and research, I feel that this will be an easy goal to achieve.”

As the department chair, he says he is responsible to the healthcare system, but is also responsible for his faculty and making sure they have what they need and that their voices are being heard.

“There’s been a lot of digestion of the One Big Beautiful Bill and its effects on the healthcare system, in terms of its implication for insurance programs and from the College of Medicine, what does it do to the student loan program?” he says. “I have meetings and we digest the information and pass it on to 20 MD-UPDATE

“I want us to be able to take care of Central Kentucky, and southeastern Kentucky. I want us to be the go-to resource where patients go when nobody else can figure it out.”- Carter Cassidy, MD.

the faculty. And, in the other direction, the faculty has questions, problems, and concerns.

It’s my job to advocate for them and make sure that we have what we need to take care of our patients.”

Administrator and Surgeon Cassidy also works to balance being a surgeon with being an administrator. He still performs spine surgeries and makes it a point to fit patients into his schedule.

“I’ve had to cut back a little bit of how many patients I see,” he says. “It just means I have to be more time efficient. If I have some empty spots in my administrative schedule, I’ll add a few extra patient slots here and there.”

Cassidy’s patient base is mostly adults, but occasionally he sees younger patients. Patient issues run from fractured disc herniations all the way up to breaking patient’s spine in order to realign it.

“I really take care of almost every age, from 15 to 90+,” he says. “I would say probably the average is a 50- to 60-year-old with a spine deformity. A lot of the scoliosis surgery in adults is more the 50, 60, and 70-year-olds, but age is pretty meaningless nowadays. One of my healthiest patients was a lady who was 74 at the time. I did a fusion of her spine from T2 in between the shoulder blades all the way down to her pelvis, and she was back to yoga in no time.”

The Kentucky Patient Population Kentucky’s population presents its own challenges, he says. “The biggest change from when I started practice to now is we have a lot fewer complications, and we’re safer because we know the numbers,” he says. “We know where things have to be pre-operatively for PHOTO PROVIDED BY UK HEALTHCARE

things like weight, blood pressure, body mass index. We know that if your BMI is over 40, your risk of complication with spine surgery goes up significantly. So, if it’s a situation where you’re going to be paralyzed if you don’t have surgery, or it’s something that hurts and is more elective, we have a real frank discussion about the risks if we proceed.”

While the future of the orthopedic specialty will focus on minimally invasive techniques, Cassidy says his department will be focused on outcomes and patient success. In the last four years, patient volume continues to grow with increased patient visits.

FY22 – 61,724 FY24 – 69,902 FY23 – 64,982 FY25 – 73,708 “There’s a lot more focus now on outcomes and trying to do these things in different ways,” he says. “We can take care of this broken bone, but which way leads to the best outcomes for the largest groups?”

Above all, he says, he will continue to focus on craftmanship and compassion for himself, the patients, and the members of his department.

“I want us to be able to take care of Central Kentucky and southeastern Kentucky. I want us to be the go-to resource where patients go when nobody else can figure it out,” he says.

“Sometimes the right thing is a big surgery.

You just have to consider it all. We understand the parameters a lot better now. X-rays and MRIs lead to these outcomes. That’s why you want to go to somebody who’s up on the latest techniques, because we are here more than anything to help our patients make decisions. You have to know your stuff to be able to do that. I can help them execute the decision they make, but I’m really here to help them make a decision about what their best outcome is.”

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Thumbs Up!

Antony Hazel, MD, hand specialist at Norton Arm & Hand Institute, specializes in unique thumb surgery

BY JIM KELSEY

Orthopedics

LOUISVILLE People commonly ask a friend or neighbor if they know a good

handyman. After all, it is always good to know someone who knows how to fix things, such as a leaky faucet or a broken washing machine. But what sort of handyman do you call for an injured hand? If you’re anywhere within 200 miles of Louisville, the answer is likely to be Antony Hazel, MD, orthopedic hand surgeon at Norton Arm & Hand Institute in Louisville.

Hazel treats a variety of upper extremity issues, but is becoming proficient and widely known for a thumb implant procedure that can have a major impact on a patient’s quality of life.

“You can bring function back to people and help get their lives back,” Hazel says. “I don’t think there’s anything more rewarding. Our hands are everything.”

Hazel was born in Southern California and grew up in Arizona. He attended the University of Arizona and then went to the University of California, Irvine for medical school. He completed an orthopedic surgery residency at Loyola (Illinois) University Medical Center and a fellowship at UC Irvine.

He met his wife, Jenny Olges, MD, in medical school. Olges, who is from Saint Matthews, Kentucky, is director of the University of Louisville Internal Medicine Residency program. The couple moved to Louisville in 2016. In addition to Jennifer, Hazel’s father and brother are both child psychiatrists, his sister is an endocrinologist, and his sister-inlaw is in family practice.

Antony Hazel, MD, upper extremities hand surgeon at the Norton Arm and Hand Institute.

PHOTOS BY GIL DUNN AND PROVIDED BY BIOPRO

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Dr. Antony Hazel prepares a patient for thumb implant surgery. Dr. Hazel is one of only a few in the region who regularly perform this procedure, which is designed for patients with severe arthritis.

Implant Design: The twopiece implant allows for 48 total configurations, allowing surgeons to customize the fit.

“I’ve been around hospitals since I was around 15,” Hazel says. “Growing up in medicine, I wanted to do something different from my dad. I was always interested in the surgical fields and liked the idea of doing something with my hands.”

Ultimately, he learned that he liked helping patients use their hands effectively as well.

He recalls the impact one of his mentors at UC Irvine, Neil Jones, MD, had on him in medical school. Jones, who is now retired, introduced Hazel to hand surgery and the complexities of hand function.

“The challenge drew me in,” Hazel says of being a hand surgeon. “It involves multiple different types of tissue you can operate on – skin, tendon, joints, bone, blood vessels, or nerve as well as different techniques including

22 MD-UPDATE

microsurgery, arthroscopy, and joint arthroplasty. You can be helpful anywhere on the body with a comprehensive skillset.”

The Patient Population Hazel is in clinic two days a week with two days scheduled for surgery. The fifth day can be administrative work or additional surgeries. In clinic, he sees patients of all ages presenting with a variety of issues, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, Dupuytren’s contracture, De Quervain’s syndrome, or ganglion cysts. He also treats conditions such as tennis elbow, fractures, and other trauma.

What brings people from far and wide, however, is his expertise with thumb implant surgery. The Modular Thumb Implant made

by BioPro replaces the damaged joint surfaces

of the basal joint between the wrist and thumb.

“The patient has usually been having a problem for years,” Hazel says of the typical candidate for this procedure. “They have pain at the base of the thumb. They have difficulty pinching or gripping, where the activities of daily living are becoming hard to do. They have exhausted using a brace, they are tired of getting shots, and the shots have a diminishing relief.”

These patients tend to be in their 60s, though Hazel has performed the surgery on those as young as 38. Many are still working and need their hands to successfully do their jobs.

“It’s arthritis. Bone on bone,” Hazel says.

“Sometimes the joint can even have subluxation where it’s not dislocated, but it is not sitting in the right spot. Any time they attempt to move it, it can hurt quite a bit.”

IMAGE PROVIDED BY BIOPRO • PHOTO PROVIDED BY NORTON HEALTHCARE

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That pain becomes debilitating and the thought of relief-delivering surgery becomes more appealing.

“Patients are ready to undergo the surgery when they are tired of dealing with the pain,” Hazel says.

The Benefit of the Implant Hazel says the procedure is an improvement over the traditional trapeziectomy, which removes the trapezium bone at the base of the thumb.

“If you’re a younger patient, no one is really excited to do that because with time, you would worry about subsidence, where the first metacarpal basically descends onto the scaphoid,” Hazel says. “If you remove the trapezium in a young person, at some point they may subside causing a new set of issues.

That is a difficult problem to handle. The risk of subsidence has always made me nervous about doing a traditional trapeziectomy. The

implant makes a lot of sense because it tries to restore normal anatomy.”

Being the only surgeon who does the BioPro Modular Thumb Implant procedure in an approximate 200-mile radius, Hazel has had patients come from as far as Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana for the procedure. He first performed it eight years ago, and to date he estimates that he has performed about 40 of these surgeries, with a significant increase in the last two years.

“The hardest part of the procedure is creating the socket because there is no template for that,” Hazel says. “We’re still trying to figure out how long the implant can last. Even if it is 10 to 15 years, I feel like that can get people through a big majority of their really active phase of life.”

Though he’s had good success with the procedure, Hazel makes sure that patients understand that is not a pleasant recovery and that nothing is guaranteed.

Orthopedics

“You don’t want to give false hope,” he says. “It is going to hurt. For a month, you are going to be slowed up, and the recovery is a three-month process. I try to overcaution patients at the beginning so when they tell me it is not as bad as they envisioned, I feel like I have prepared them well. Patients who are further along have told me that sometimes they forget that they have had anything done.

When you give people back their ‘normal’ function, that is a real homerun.

It is incredibly impactful for any patient, but perhaps more so for those working in physically demanding occupations. The procedure can prevent them from having to change careers.

“Patients are able to return to hard labor with the implant,” Hazel says. “They can get a lot of strength back, so I don’t limit them on what they can do functionally.”

Restoring functionality. That’s the work of a true “handyman.”

Lace up your shoes for a good cause.

October 11, 2025 | 8 a.m.

Location R.J. Corman Railroad Group Headquarters 101 R.J. Corman Drive • Nicholasville, KY 40356 Celebrate the cancer community with us by raising funds for the Yes, Mamm! Yes, Cerv! Programs. Your support provides free mammography and cervical cancer screenings, diagnostic testing, and program support to underinsured and uninsured patients across Kentucky.

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PHOTO PROVIDED BY NORTON HEALTHCARE

ISSUE #159 23

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Orthopedics

The Moment He Knew He Wanted To Be an Orthopedic Surgeon Jonathon Lindner, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Baptist Health Louisville, recalls his transformative moment

BY GIL DUNN LOUISVILLE It’s known as the “Aha! moment,”

when the human brain suddenly realigns a set of facts into a new paradigm that produces clarity, motivation, determination, relief, confidence, even joy.

In previous generations, it was called “the light bulb moment,” borrowing the sensation of sudden illumination that transforms the dark unknown into the bright and clear known.

Jonathon Lindner, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Baptist Health Louisville recalls his “Aha! moment” vividly.

“While I was playing football and lacrosse at Saint Xavier High School, in Louisville, there was a pre-med club with a mentor who was an orthopedic surgeon and St. X alum.

With permission slips from our parents, he took us to Norton Audubon on a Saturday afternoon. We got to go into the operating room where there was a cadaver knee and a cadaver hand. We were given the opportunity to help perform a knee replacement on a cadaver knee and then dissect, and look at all the anatomy in a human hand. It was on that day, sophomore year of high school, that I said, ‘Yes, this is what I want to do for a living.’”

Lindner continues, “I honestly don't know who the surgeon was. He's probably retired by now, because it would have been 2005. I've actually thought about it quite often.”

Lindner went on to receive his BS and MS degrees in biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan and his medical degree and orthopedic residency at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship in adult knee and hip reconstruction at the Baptist Health Miami Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Institute.

24 MD-UPDATE

Upon returning to Louisville in 2021, Lindner joined Baptist Health where he holds clinics and performs adult joint replacement surgery three days a week in LaGrange, Kentucky, and two days a week in New Albany, Indiana.

Part of a family well-versed in medicine, Lindner is married to Krista, who is a retired OR nurse. His father, Robert Lindner, MD, was a urologist at First Urology. His mother Cheryl was also an OR nurse and is now retired.

The Rural & Small Market Orthopedic Practice With the evolution of outpatient orthopedic surgery, more patients are being treated in smaller locales, close to their rural homes, away from the large metropolitan healthcare centers. Lindner sees this as an advantage to both patient and physicians.

“I think there’s less hustle and bustle coming to a smaller facility. The patients get to spend more time with you and it’s more personalized, for me and my nursing staff,” says Lindner.

The majority of Lindner’s patients are between the ages of 50 and 80, and are experiencing knee or hip joint related issues, such as pain and arthritis. He also sees a wide spectrum of acute knee and hip injuries all the way to end stage debilitating osteoarthritis.

Obesity, smoking, and diabetes are common comorbidities in the adult joint replacement patient population, particularly in rural areas such as Southern Indiana and LaGrange.

Addressing those factors are important to Lindner in pre-op discussions and planning.

“We try to get their BMI at least below 45 and ideally below 40. In terms of diabetes, their A1c is ideally to be below 8, proving that at least they're taking their glycemic index

seriously and to quit smoking. Most studies in orthopedics show that the three biggest risk factors for infection and poor surgical outcome after hip and knee replacement are smoking, diabetes and obesity. We try to get these patients to control what they can control, so that they have as good an outcome following surgery as possible,” says Lindner.

Knee and Hip Replacement Surgery Lindner says that he primarily uses the anterior approach for hip replacement surgery since he estimates about 95% of the hip replacements he did in fellowship were with the anterior approach.

“The anterior approach has been around for 15 or 20 years. It's taken a long time for widespread acceptance as surgeons learned a new way to do things. Most of the people coming out of fellowships now, the younger, newer generation of knee and hip surgeons, are doing the anterior approach.”

The hip and knee replacement systems preferred by Lindner are made by Smith & Nephew because he says “they make a hypoallergenic femoral component for total knees and a hypoallergenic femoral head for hip replacement made of oxinium. Most joint replacements have a cobalt chrome bearing surface which has nickel in it. Right now, Smith & Nephew is the only company that utilizes oxinium, and it's the only hip and knee replacement that does not have nickel in it. So, for patients that are nickel sensitive or have nickel allergy, that's obviously the advantage.”

Talking and Listening to the Patient “I primarily see two conditions, knee pain and hip pain. So, it's a pretty streamlined process. I have a set of questions that I ask patients. I have a set of different treatment

Jonathon Lindner, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Baptist Health Louisville holds clinics in LaGrange, Kentucky, and New Albany, Indiana.

“I primarily see two conditions, knee pain and hip pain. So, it's a pretty streamlined process.”- Jonathon Lindner, MD

options available, and I help them come up with a treatment plan that's best for them. It's talking, really talking to the patient, figuring out what it is that they’re trying to get back to? Are they trying to run marathons or are they trying to just mosey around the house?

Coming up with an understanding of what the patient's expectations are, where they are right now in their treatment algorithm, how much pain they're in, and what they're willing to try next,” says Lindner.

Listening to a patient and receiving their feedback sometimes come with a big dose of gratitude and some tears. Lindner recalls a recent 50-year-old female patient who had severe avascular necrosis of her femoral head.

“She couldn't work. She was going on permanent disability. She was in a wheelchair. She had no quality of life whatsoever. She wasn't able to do the things that she wanted to do.

She was just absolutely miserable, and had almost essentially given up.

“We scheduled her for a hip replacement.

She came back to see me at the two-week follow up and was actually crying in the office because she was walking pain free for the first time in probably two to three years. And she thanked me profusely. She said ‘You changed my life, you saved my life.’

“I actually just saw her for her two-year visit. She was on the verge of permanent disability, and now she's working full time. She's doing the things that she wants to do, and that's what drives me, really changing somebody's life like that. You take somebody who can't do anything, they're just absolutely miserable, and you put them through a 45-minute surgery, and you change their life forever.”

Just like the orthopedic surgeon, the St. X alum, changed Jonathon Lindner’s life 20+ PHOTOS BY BRUCE MORRIS, MORRIS IMAGES

years ago. Dr. Jonathon Lindner would like to know who you were and wants to thank you for changing his life.

BAPTIST HEALTH MEDICAL GROUP ORTHOPEDICS Jonathan Lindner, MD 1023 New Moody Lane, Suite 102 LaGrange, KY

502-222-0598 2125 State Street, Suite 5 New Albany, IN

812-981-7285 ISSUE #159 25

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Orthopedics

The Problem Solver

Orthopedic surgeon finds his home in the mountains with mountain people

BY GIL DUNN PAINTSVILLE Eric Dennis, MD, orthopedic

surgeon at Appalachian Regional Healthcare in Paintsville, Kentucky, played football and lacrosse at Chantilly High School, a northern Virginia suburb, about 25 miles west of the Washington DC metro. When Dennis grew up in Chantilly, it was a rural community, but suburban sprawl from DC is starting to take over.

Dennis was at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, studying to be a civil engineer when he tore his Achilles tendon playing flag football. He started shadowing William Hazel, MD, the orthopedist who did his surgery. Hazel went on to become the secretary of health and human resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia. After being exposed to the engineering mechanics of orthopedic surgery, Dennis pivoted to medicine, graduating with a degree in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Dennis received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, followed by a fellowship in sports medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

In his third and fourth years of medical school at Fairfax County Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, Dennis worked alongside the orthopedic trauma unit and became immersed in the field. He recalls, “That's all the orthopedic trauma team did, severe fractures and pelvic fractures and real bad open fractures. They did fracture care all day, every day.”

Dennis did his internship and residency in orthopedic surgery at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. In 2021 he joined Saint Claire Healthcare in Morehead, Kentucky, for three years. His wife Nicole’s best friend lived in Paintsville, and when the opportunity to join ARH in 2024 was presented, it was an easy decision.

26 MD-UPDATE

Eric Dennis, MD, orthopedic surgeon at ARH

He recalls, “I had always heard great things about ARH and it was the perfect situation to come down here. We’ve been here nine months now, and it's been a great. We want to be here long term.”

Dennis met his wife Nicole at Cabell County Hospital where she was a hospital social worker. Nicole has since received her master’s degree in counseling. The surrounding outdoors and mountains of Eastern Kentucky suit the couple fine. “We're right in the mountains here and everywhere you look, there's beautiful trees and really nice places to walk outside. It's like the best of both worlds,” says Dennis.

The Rural Orthopedic Patient Population Being a smaller hospital in a rural area, Dennis says that he is a general orthopedist, typically in clinic three days a week and in the operating room two days a week. Patients range in age from the very young to very old with a variety of procedures, such as arthroscopy for rotator cuff tears and ACL tear sports medicine, total joint repairs, fractures, and nerve procedures such as carpal and cubital tunnel. “I really like general orthopedics because every day is different, dealing with what comes through the door,” says Dennis.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ARH

“I do total knees, total hips, and total shoulders, which is what an upper extremity or sports guy would do. When I do hip replacement, I use the anterior approach because recovery is a little quicker than from the posterior approach. In training we did at least 80% anterior approach,” says Dennis.

The patients fall into three groups, says Dennis. There’s the younger people who are sports medicine patients; there’s the middle-aged group who are there for arthroscopic tendon, ligament, or cartilage repair; and then the older patients who come for total joint replacement.

“There's one aspect about the people here, compared to where I grew up. Not to knock the people from Northern Virginia, but I love the people from Appalachia. I feel like they're all easy going. People are very nice to be around; they listen and do what they're supposed to. What I want them to do is to get better and recover. It’s just a great patient population,” says Dennis.

In addition to his hospital based clinical practice and surgery, Dennis will be covering Paintsville High School sport teams, starting with football this fall.

He states, “I did a sports medicine fellowship, so that's something that I do enjoy covering. I like taking care of the athletes, they’re a great patient population because they're so motivated to get back to playing sports. They're the ones you have to slow down and tell them, ‘Hey, you got to go a little slower. We want you to get better before getting back on the field.’”

Getting Comorbidities under Control Except for fractures and orthopedic trauma patients, most of Dennis’ patient’s surgeries are elective. Patients can modify some of the factors needed to have surgery for total joints and invasive surgeries. Dennis notes that sometimes that gives patients a motivation to quit smoking, lose weight, or get their blood glucose at the proper level. He recalls, “I've

SPECIAL SECTION

had a number of patients who have given up smoking so they can have their total joint surgery and then haven't picked it back up afterwards. Or they get their diabetes and BMI under control, because we have specific cutoffs. We know that if a patient is over a certain cutoff with their glucose levels, like over 7 and a BMI over 40, that they're at much higher risk for infection after a procedure.”

“In general, we can help make people more mobile and actually get healthier after surgery,” says Dennis.

When asked if he’s conservative or aggressive with his patients considering surgery, Dennis says, “I'm right in the middle area for taking people to surgery. I say to people that as much as I like operating, it's better off for you if you can get better without surgery. In orthopedics, we're not doing something that's going to save your life, it's going to be something to enhance your quality of life.”

In rural settings, many referrals come from family members of patients that Dennis has already treated. “I do get that a lot.”

Advancement in Orthopedic Surgery When Dennis did his fellowship in sports medicine, he learned techniques for perfecting the way tunnels are drilled for ACL tears that result in a more stable ACL with a lower chance of re-rupture. The same occurred with rotator cuff repair. “We've advanced to where we do most of them arthroscopically, and the re-injury rates have gone down,” he says.

Similar progress has been made in total joint repair, says Dennis. “We're already seeing a game changer in robotic total joint arthroplasty. I think that they're going to progress robotics to other parts of orthopedic surgery in addition to total joints.”

Getting a robotic surgical system to the ARH hospital in Paintsville is on Dennis’ to-do list. “I've already been talking with the administration here, and some of the implant companies about potentially getting a robot here. It helps us put the implants in more perfectly and helps patients recover a little faster, because it's done with a little less soft tissue dissection and it’s a little less traumatic,” says Dennis.

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Orthopedics

The potential patient for total joint replacement has changed somewhat too. Dennis recalls two different patients, a man in his 80s who had a severe arthritis but felt he was too old for new knees, but otherwise very healthy. “I always tell people, ‘Age is just a number. It's more about your health and your ability to recover and rehab and the motivation you have.’ The man had the knee surgery and was up walking around the day after surgery,” says Dennis.

Dennis also recalls a female patient in her 60s with extreme bursitis on the side of her hip. She had gone the route of multiple injections without substantial relief and finally decided on surgery. “I just saw her at her first two-week visit, and she's like, ‘Can I give you a hug? Because this is the first time I haven't had the pain in years, and I'm just ecstatic,’” says Dennis.

What’s the Problem To Be Solved?

“My main motivation is helping people get back to being where they want to be. My undergrad degree was civil engineering, and essentially, it's a problem-solving mentality.

I feel like orthopedics allows me to do that same problem-solving, but with people. Help them solve their problems to get them back to being where they want to be. I've always loved the problem-solving aspect of anything in life, and orthopedics allows me to do that firsthand with people, and in a way that I get to use my hands to help them,” says Dennis.

And that’s what problem solvers do.

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Scan the QR code to schedule an appointment.

Scott Neal, CFP®, CPA 3292 Eagle View Lane, Suite 290 Lexington, KY 40509 Call 800.344.9098 | 859.254.3036

D. Scott Neal Inc. is a tradename. All services are provided by D. Scott Neal Inc. investment professionals are provided in their individual capacities as investment adviser representatives of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (“Mercer Advisors”), an SEC registered investment adviser principally located in Denver, Colorado, with various branch offices throughout the United States doing business under different tradenames, including D. Scott Neal Inc. 20250519 742358

ARH SPECIALTY ASSOCIATES Eric Dennis, MD 313 West St., Suite 1 Paintsville, KY 41240

606-788-6415 ISSUE #159 27

Mental Wellness

Why Self-Compassion Feels Dangerous to High Achievers And why it’s actually your greatest advantage

BY JAN ANDERSON, PSYD, LPCC

IF SELF-CRITICISM ACTUALLY worked, high achiev-

ers would be the most energized, fulfilled people on the planet. But we’re not. We’re exhausted.

Snapping at the people we care about. Burning out while pushing harder than ever.

One of the most deeply rooted myths in high-achieving cultures is that self-judgment is a necessary ingredient for growth.

But decades of research say otherwise.

Grit without grace turns into grind. And grind isn’t sustainable. People who practice self-compassion are actually more motivated, not less. They’re more likely to take responsibility, make amends, and stay committed to goals.

Why? Because they’re not wasting energy on shame and blame. They recover faster from setbacks and adapt more effectively under pressure.

The Case Against Toughing It Out Self-judgment wears a convincing disguise: It looks like ambition, responsibility, even moral high ground.

But dig deeper and you’ll find high anxiety—fear of failure, rejection, or not being enough.

And here’s the kicker: Judgment shuts down learning. It clouds your ability to reflect, distorts data, and makes meaningful change harder, not easier.

Neuroscience shows that self-compassion stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, shifting us out of fight-or-flight and into a state where calm, clarity, and creativity can emerge. In short: kindness isn’t fluff.

It’s fuel.

You don’t need more toughness. You need recovery built into your strategy.

But you’ve trained yourself to associate pressure with performance. Urgency with responsibility. Tension with results.

28 MD-UPDATE

Why Your Nervous System Misinterprets Relief as Risk Self-kindness doesn’t feel good because it doesn’t feel familiar.

So when you shift gears—when you try to slow down, regulate, or even speak to yourself with kindness—your brain misinterprets that relief as… risk. It’s like you’re skipping a necessary consequence rather than engaging in strategic recovery.

Here’s how some of my clients describe it: Client 1: “After a tough call, I paused and said to myself, ‘This is hard.’ It felt grounding—just for a moment. Then my brain lit up like I’d missed an alarm. I thought, ‘Wait… shouldn’t I be punishing myself right now?’”

Client 2: “If I’m kind to myself, I’m slacking. If I’m hard on myself, at least I’m being responsible.”

Client 3: “You make a mistake. You try to stay present, objective, even kind. It helps.

For a moment. Then comes the backlash: ‘That was too easy. I must be letting myself off the hook.’”

Client 4: “I tried to cut myself some slack—but it only made me worry that I was missing something.”

It’s a trap. Real accountability isn’t cruelty.

It’s clarity. And clarity requires nervous system regulation, not internal warfare.

Why I Call It Navy SEALs Breathing When I introduce breathing techniques to my high-achieving clients—especially medical professionals and executives—I sometimes see a look. That subtle wince that says, “Are we about to do yoga in here?”

But when I say, “Let’s use the same breathing technique Navy SEALs rely on in combat zones,” everything shifts. Eyes refocus. Curiosity returns. We’re no longer

Jan Anderson, PsyD, LPCC

Counseling with a Coaching Edge Executives & Professionals Couples Family Estrangement

LifeWise@DrJanAnderson.com DrJanAnderson.com 502.426.1616

talking about fluff—we’re talking about performance.

The technique is called “box breathing”—used by elite tactical teams to regulate stress under pressure. It’s simple: Inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Repeat.

What makes it powerful isn’t just the breathwork—it’s what it does to your nervous system. It shifts you out of fightor-flight and into a parasympathetic state where you can think clearly again. It doesn’t just calm you down. It sharpens your cognition, restores access to your executive function, and slows the reactive loop.

Mental Wellness

And yes—it has ancient yogic roots. But it was repurposed for high-stakes, high-performance leadership. That’s why I use it. And that’s why it works.

You Don’t Have to Be WooWoo to Be Kind to Yourself Self-kindness has a branding problem. It often gets lumped in with self-indulgence or a way to avoid accountability or discomfort. But what we’re talking about here is tactical.

This isn’t about avoiding responsibility.

It’s about responding to it with your whole brain online.

Kindness reduces shame and increases strategic thinking. It stabilizes your nervous system so you can respond instead of react. It improves decision-making under pressure.

That’s not soft. That’s smart.

Why Pausing Is More Powerful Than You Think Here’s another example of self-kindness that feels smart, not soft: taking a practical pause to recover faster from a setback.

Let’s be honest: for high performers, pausing often feels like a luxury. Or worse, a waste of time. When your default mode is productivity, your value gets tied to doing— checking boxes, solving problems, staying ten steps ahead.

What if the most powerful shift you could make wasn’t in your calendar—but in your nervous system?

High achievers often rely on mental toughness to get through hard things. But true resilience isn’t about white-knuckling— it’s about staying connected to yourself.

How to Interrupt Spinning Out or Pushing Too Hard: What Your Body Already Knows Our bodies are honest. When your mind is stuck in overdrive, your body contracts.

Breath gets shallow. Focus narrows. That’s the stress response.

But when you take a conscious pause, something shifts. The breath slows. The mind quiets. You start to see clearly

again—not from urgency, but from awareness.

That’s not a slowdown. That’s a strategy.

These pauses—however brief—recalibrate your internal operating system. And that clarity? It’s often where your best decisions come from.

Because the pause isn’t just a break from the chaos. It’s a mental reset and a return to clarity.

The Shift from Self-Criticism to Connection: A Mini Practice with Major Impact One physician described how she used to spiral after difficult patient encounters.

Her inner critic would ramp up, calling her careless or inadequate. She’d square her shoulders, set her jaw, push harder—and replay the interaction for hours.

I said, “That’s burnout disguised as productivity.” So I introduced her to a quick mental reset called GAIN. “I promise it won’t make you slower. It will make you steadier.”

Here’s how it works: G = Grounding Start with a few deeper breaths. As you exhale, allow your body to settle into the support of your chair, floor, or bed. This physical grounding gives your nervous system a signal that you’re safe enough to step out of high-alert mode.

A = Acknowledge and Allow Notice what you’re feeling—without trying to change it. Let the stress, frustration, or discomfort be there without immediately fixing or analyzing it. Acceptance doesn’t mean you like it—it just means you’re no longer fighting it.

I = Interest Shift your attention to your body with curiosity. Where are you holding tension— your jaw, shoulders, chest? Can you notice sensations like tightness, tingling, or heaviness without judgment? This step helps integrate mind and body, which improves self-regulation.

N = Need Ask yourself: What do I really need right now? Maybe it’s a break. A better boundary.

Or simply some acknowledgment that what you’re going through is hard. Give yourself the kind of support you’d offer a colleague or friend in the same spot.

Here’s how it played out for the physician: Grounding: She took a few slow breaths and felt her body settle into her chair.

Acknowledge: She admitted she was feeling shaken and self-critical.

Interest: She noticed how tight her chest felt and how her jaw had clenched.

Need: She realized she needed perspective, not punishment.

She told me, “The urge to self-blame started to pass. I felt my breathing slow down.

My shoulders dropped. And I could actually think again. I remembered the patient’s appreciation at the end of the visit—something I would’ve ignored before.”

GAIN isn’t about retreat—it’s about recalibrating so you can return to high performance with clarity.

Final Thought: Self-compassion doesn’t lower the bar—it removes the blindfold.

It helps you see what’s actually happening, recover faster, and lead with steadiness—not just speed.

It’s the difference between surviving success… and sustaining it.

So next time your inner critic says, “You should be tougher,” try answering, “I’m choosing smarter.”

Want to go beyond surviving success? If you’re a high-achieving professional ready to lead with clarity and resilience—not just pressure—I’d love to talk. Visit drjananderson. com to learn more or reach out to schedule a consultation.

VISIT US ONLINE! .com

ISSUE #159 29

Events

When Art Collides with Honesty

Ben Sollee performs at the UofL Depression Center benefit dinner meaningful engagement, even when you’re not at LOUISVILLE Cellist and your best. composer Ben Sollee took After the performance, the stage, not just to perI asked Ben what’s been form — but to connect— at most surprising or unexthe University of Louisville pected on this journey he Depression Center’s annual calls long-haul COVID. benefit dinner on June 6, “Breathing.” he imme2025. diately answered. “I found What made the evening that it’s such a basic, funmemorable wasn’t just his damental, almost invisible music. It was the way he physical activity that we Rif El-Mallahk, MD, director of the UofL Depression Center, addressed the audience. used it to open up a deeper do but... no one’s checking conversation about mental your pace of breath when health.

In a culture that leans toward problem-solvyou go to the doctor.”

Between songs, Sollee, a Kentucky native ing and quick fixes, Sollee’s message was He went on to describe how learning to known for his genre-bending sound and soul- simple: Sometimes the most healing thing we breathe properly—especially through the diaful presence, spoke candidly about navigating can do is stay present—with ourselves, with phragm—became a turning point for both anxiety, burnout, and grief. others, and with what is difficult. his mental and physical health in his recovery He talked about how music has been both from COVID. a creative outlet and a form of emotional The Power of Breath and Silence “My hair started growing back.” self-regulation—a way to “stay with what’s During the Q&A, someone asked how It’s a reminder of how often we overlook hard, long enough to find something mean- Ben manages the stress of performing. His the most essential forms of self-regulation. ingful in it.” response?

Breath isn’t just biological—it’s emotional.

His remarks made a powerful case for music “I focus on being useful—not perfect.”

Foundational. And when we pay attention to not just as performance, but as presence. One That insight resonated with an audience it, it can change everything from stress levels line stayed with me: “Music doesn’t fix. It filled with high achievers. Perfectionism tends to how we relate to our own bodies. accompanies.” to paralyze. Usefulness opens the door to Ben’s comment about breathing is part of

BY JAN ANDERSON, PSYD

David Casey, MD, UofL Health, with wife Valerie and Jesse Wright, MD, PhD, founding executive director of the UofL Health Depression Center.

30 MD-UPDATE

Brian Casey, MD, VA Center, Ali Farooqui, MD, Integrative Psychiatry, and Audrey Summers, MD, UofL Physician Group.

PHOTOS BY GIL DUNN

UofL Health psychiatry residents Umair Bhutto, 2yr, Sarah Abell, 4yr, Modan Subheeswar, 1yr.

Events

a small but powerful practice he calls “micro stillness”—brief pauses of silence between songs.

“Even thirty seconds of silence between songs can shift your whole nervous system.

We don’t give enough credit to little pauses.”

He explained that these short resets help Sollee recalibrate and stay grounded. They mirror what we know from neuroscience: that the nervous system responds powerfully to intentional pauses.

As a clinician, I couldn’t help but connect the dots. Sollee’s approach echoes what we know helps people heal: emotional presence, meaningful pauses, and a willingness to feel before trying to fix.

Founded in 2009 by Jesse Wright, MD, PhD, and Allan Tasman, MD, the UofL Depression Center works to improve the treatment of mood disorders through clinical services, education, and research. Their adult services program has over 50,000 visits per year of persons with mood and anxiety disorders. By using evidence-based treatments, the Center offers recovery and sustained well-being for its patients. The Center’s goal is to increase availability of treatment in the region.

More information is at www.louisville.edu/depression.

The Center is located at 401 E. Chestnut St, Suite 610 Louisville, KY 40202. The phone number is 502.588.4450.

Audrey Summers, MD, UofL Health, Sarah Abell, UofL 4yr, Mary Helen Davis, MD, Integrative Psychiatry, and Al Martin, MD, director of pathology at Norton Healthcare.

Robyn Stinnett, MD, Integrative Psychiatry, Jan Anderson, PSYD, Lifewise by Dr. Jan, and Shelly Oates, RN, UofL Physicians.

Ben Sollee and Dr. Jan Anderson discuss the roles of art, music, and mental health.

ISSUE #159 31

News

SEND YOUR NEWS ITEMS TO MD-UPDATE > news@md-update.com

Lexington Medical Society Foundation Awards Grants Lexington area medical and healthoriented nonprofits receive funds from annual LMSF Golf Tournament

LEXINGTON The Lexington Medical Society

Foundation’s annual golf tournament on May 21, 2025, raised over $20,000. On August 6, Foundation board members evaluated grant requests and distributed $22,500 to 14 nonprofit healthcare organizations.

LMS Foundation Golf Tournament chair John Collins, MD, affirmed the Foundation’s mission “to improve the health of our community through support of Lexington-area medically related, non-profit organizations, medical students and physician leadership and wellness programs.”

Organizations that received funds were: Baby Health Services, which provides medications and immunizations at no cost to uninsured children in Fayette and surrounding counties; Camp Horsin’ Around, a camp for children with compromised health or special needs; Children’s Advocacy Center, which provides comprehensive medical and mental health examinations for child victims of sexual abuse in Fayette County; Chrysalis House, which assists women recovering from substance abuse with residential aid and oral health programs; The Lexington Children’s Museum, which provides educational activities for children while teaching about the human body; LMS Physician Wellness Program, which provides counseling services for active LMS physicians, UK residents, and medical students; McDowell House Museum, which hosts a summer camp for children that teaches health and medical procedures; Radio Eye, which addresses the information needs of people who are blind or disabled by providing 24/7 audio services such as reading local and regional newspapers, health periodicals, mag32 MD-UPDATE

LMS Foundation board members include (l-r) Tom Waide, MD, Hunt Ray, treasurer, John DeWeese, Bill Farmer, Jr., Alicia Jordan, John Collins, MD, board chair, Gil Dunn, John Maher, and David Bensema, MD. (Board members not in picture: Hope Cottrill, MD, LMS president, Jane Chiles, John Roth, MD.)

azines, and programs on health; Lexington Hearing & Speech Clinic, which provides care for children 0-3 years old with hearing loss; Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing for families whose children are being treated in local medical facilities; Mission Health & Faith Pharmacy, which offers medical treatment such as insulin for low income and uninsured adults; Surgery on Sunday, which provides free outpatient surgery for uninsured or low income patients; Bluegrass

LEXINGTON MEDICAL SOCIETY Physicians taking care of the community since 1799

Council of the Blind, which provides health services to the blind or visually impaired; and KY Diabetes Camp for Children, Camp Hendon, a summer camp for children with Type 1 diabetes.

Stock Yards Bank & Trust was the 2025 presenting sponsor of the LMS Foundation’s Golf Tournament.

For information on the Lexington Medical Society visit www.lexingtondoctors.org.

The principal voice & resource for Central Kentucky physicians LMS DINNER SOCIAL

Question – Persuade – Refer Suicide Prevention & Gatekeeper Training October 14, 2025 The Signature Club 6pm Sponsored by KMA LMS DINNER SOCIAL

International Medical Missions Symposium November 19, 2025 The Signature Club 6pm For more information visit

lexingtondoctors.org or call (859) 278-0569

Sponsored by ProAssurance

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