REIDSVILLE, N.C. – Dr. Stanley Harrison is the lead orthopedic surgeon at the Cone Health Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville.
That role gives him little time to go out of town for conferences or workshops to keep up with the latest and greatest in orthopedic technology.
“It’s almost impossible for me to get away,” Dr. Harrison said.
Companies like SouthTech Orthopedics are able to change that.
The company’s mobile education lab or mobile cadaver lab brings the training and techniques to doctors all around the country.
“It’s an opportunity for surgeons to get hands-on training, essentially, with a specific type of orthopedic technique that they would like to try,” said SouthTech representative Andy Devault.
In fact, Dr. Harrison will be performing an ACL surgery with the new Arthrex technology he learned today, next week.
“Without this, although I can learn them or watch them on a video, I can’t actually do them and get hands on experience,” the doctor said.
Dr. Harrison says being in the know is important to him because he always dreamed of working in a small-town hospital, bringing the same opportunities and technology that patients in bigger towns get.
“I always thought about that when I was resident, that all these people would come out to the teaching hospital, and they would be from all over the place, and I always thought, ‘Well, why do they always have to come to the teaching hospital for that? Why can’t they have it where they are?’” Harrison shared.
The orthopedic surgeon practiced three procedures: ACL reconstruction with hamstring tendon, new technique for patella tendon repair (a new process for a procedure Dr. Harrison has done in the past), and medial patella femeral ligament reconstruction (a completely new procedure that will be available to his patients after he completes his training).
Dr. Harrison expects to be performing these procedures at Annie Penn Hospital in the near future.
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