Dr. Robert F. LaPrade Awarded the 2013 OREF Clinical Research Award for his Study on Improving Outcomes for Posterolateral Knee Injuries
The posterolateral corner (PLC) of the knee is located on the outside of the knee joint. It functions to stabilize the knee against direct or external forces. Injuries of this nature can create a devastating impact to athletic performance. The posterolateral corner of the knee is one of the more complex areas to both diagnose and treat surgically.
On November 13, The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, announced that Robert F. LaPrade MD, PhD has been awarded the highly competitive and prestigious 2013 OREF Clinical Research Award for his submitted paper on “Improving Outcomes for Posterolateral Knee Injuries”. Dr. LaPrade will be presenting his winning paper at the Annual Meetings of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 2013.
The institue would like to congratulate Dr. LaPrade for his outstanding committment and ongoing research into this serious knee injury.
“I am very humbled to have been chosen to receive this award. I am also very grateful to my family for their support and to my many colleagues who have been an essential part of my research over the past 15 years," said Dr. LaPrade. "This award solidly validates our research strategy of defining the anatomy, developing improved means of diagnosing a problem, redefining the clinically relevant biomechanics, developing improved radiographic diagnostic measures, developing biomechanically validated ligament reconstructions, and then validating these reconstructions in patient outcomes studies."
In addition to the posterolateral knee for which this award was based, Dr. LaPrade and his team of collaborators have similar ongoing programs in place for the medial knee and MCL, anterior cruciate ligament, and posterior cruciate ligament.
Dr. LaPrade’s collaborators on this paper included Lars Engebretsen, MD, PHD (University of Oslo, Norway), Steinar Johansen, MD (University of Oslo), Chad Griffith, MD (University of Minnesota), Benjamin Coobs, MD (University of Minnesota) and Andrew Geeslin, MD (Western Michigan University).
About the Kappa Delta and OREF Clinical Research Awards
The Kappa Delta Award was established by the Kappa Delta Sorority in 1950 to honor high achievements in the field of orthopaedic research. In 1994, the Board of Trustees of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) created the OREF Clinical Research Award to stimulate and recognize outstanding orthopaedic clinical research. These awards are considered the highest research award for orthopaedic surgeons and have been called the “Orthopaedic Nobel Prize”. The Awards are chosen by the Research Development Committee of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons from manuscripts which represent a large body of cohesive and highly significant scientific work which reflects years of investigation in orthopaedic surgery. Previous winners of this award read like a “Who’s Who” of high impact orthopaedic clinicians and researchers for whom clinical studies have resulted in numerous scientific breakthroughs and for which significant numbers of patients have benefitted from their research work. These awards are felt to represent researchers who have made most of the leading orthopaedic advancements of the past 60 years.