2 January 2007

 

 

Dear Potential Collaborator,

 

I chose a career in an orthopaedic surgery department because I enjoy collaborating with clinicians. This open letter to potential surgical collaborators is intended to explain my approach to collaboration. I seek to find the intersection of my research interests, your research interests, and funding sources. This is my highest priority.

 

You know your interests, so I will explain a bit about mine. I am most interested in applying the techniques of operations research to orthopaedic medicine. You may not be familiar with the term operations research. It is a field that develops mathematical and computer models to solve applied problems. The toolkit of operations research is primarily mathematical programming, stochastic processes, and Monte Carlo simulation (please note that this does not include finite element analyses, which is mostly a domain of structural engineering).

 

To get a better idea of how operations research methods can be used in orthopaedic research, I suggest you look at three manuscripts my research group has produced in the last few years (click on title to download copy):

 

  1. Silver, A.E., Lungren, M.P., Johnson, M.E., ODriscoll, S.W., An, K-N, and Hughes, R.E. (2006) Using support vector machines to optimally classify rotator cuff strength data and quantify post-operative strength in rotator cuff tear patients. Journal of Biomechanics 39: 973-979.

 

  1. Langenderfer, J.E., Carpenter, J.E., Johnson, M.E., An, K-N, and Hughes, R.E. (2006) A probabilistic model of glenohumeral external rotation strength for healthy normals and rotator cuff tear cases. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 34(3):465-476.

 

  1. Gatti, C.J., Scibek, J., Svintsitski, O., Carpenter, J.E., and Hughes, R.E. Integer programming models for optimizing shoulder rehabilitation. Submitted to Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

 

Also, you may want to look at my web page http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rehughes/index.html.

 

I prioritize my collaborations based on how much fun I am having. I enjoy working with clinicians who bring clinical knowledge to the collaboration, seek to find a common language with engineers, contribute to the collaboration, and treat me and my team respectfully. I do not enjoy having my arm twisted, being subjected to nasty behavior, or having my engineering students treated badly.

 

I look forward to meeting with you to discuss possible collaborations.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Richard E. Hughes, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering