Loyola Physician Named President-Elect of American Orthopaedic Association

MAYWOOD, IL – The American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) named Alexander J. Ghanayem, MD, FAOA, department chair, orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation at Loyola University Medical Center and chief medical officer of Loyola Medicine, as second president-elect during the 2022 Annual Leadership Meeting on June 16, 2022. Dr. Ghanayem will serve as president of the organization from 2024-2025. The second president-elect serves as part of the AOA’s Executive Committee, which oversees the organization’s strategic direction and is comprised of the nation’s top orthopaedic surgeons.

“I’m humbled and honored to serve the American Orthopaedic Association,” said Dr. Ghanayem. “I look forward to contributing to its mission to lead the greater orthopaedic community and address those critical issues facing our patients and physicians.”

Founded in 1887, and the first orthopaedic association in the world, the American Orthopaedic Association is a small, select organization of elected orthopaedic leaders. Membership in the American Orthopaedic Association is an earned membership that comes at the end of a stringent peer-reviewed process. Fewer than 10% of practicing orthopaedic surgeons have achieved AOA membership. The AOA’s programs are designed to provide leadership education for surgeons from residency through retirement. The AOA helps orthopaedic surgeons gain and enhance skills and concepts not taught during residency. This includes leadership development courses, content, and training for academic orthopaedists, and providing thought leadership on and solutions for critical issues facing the broad orthopaedic community.

“We are exceptionally proud of Dr. Ghanayem’s election to the executive committee of the AOA,” said Richard K. Freeman, MD, MBA, FACS, executive vice president and regional chief clinical officer for Loyola Medicine. “It is a testament to his leadership as well as his significant contributions to Loyola Medicine and the field of orthopaedics.”

Dr. Ghanayem has led the orthopaedic department since 2016. He is a graduate of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed an internship in general surgery and a residency in orthopaedic surgery at Case Western Reserve University, and a fellowship in spine surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Ghanayem’s clinical expertise includes spine surgery for a variety of conditions, including the cervical and lumbar spine. He has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed medical journals, presented over 150 abstracts at national medical conferences and written chapters for several medical textbooks. Dr. Ghanayem currently serves on Loyola Medicine’s Finance Committee and is chair of the Compensation Committee.

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About Loyola Medicine

Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago’s western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, MacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from more than 1,500 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. Loyola is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois’s largest burn center, a certified comprehensive stroke center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Established in 1961, Gottlieb is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park with the Judd A. Weinberg Emergency Department, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research Facility at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center. MacNeal is a 374-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced medical, surgical and psychiatric services, acute rehabilitation, an inpatient skilled nursing facility and a 68-bed behavioral health program and community clinics.

For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

About Trinity Health

Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 115,000 colleagues and nearly 26,000 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 25 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 125 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. Based in Livonia, Michigan, its annual operating revenue is $20.2 billion with $1.2 billion returned to its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs.

For more information, visit www.trinity-health.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.