Josef Eichinger, MD – Fellowship Director
Richard Friedman, MD
Brandon Rogalski, MD
Brent Ponce, MD
Fellowship Coordinator: Joan Graesch (graesch@musc.edu)
Address: 96 Jonathan Lucas St 708 Charleston, SC 29425
Phone: 843-792-8959
E-mail: eichinge@musc.edu
Duration: 1 year (August 1 to July 31)
Number of Fellows: 1
Stipend: $70,000 plus benefits
Fellowship Description
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship is located in Charleston, South Carolina. It is designed to offer one fellow per year a comprehensive exposure to all aspects of shoulder and elbow surgery. The selected fellow will be mentored by four fellowship trained faculty who are ASES members, Drs. Josef Eichinger, Brandon Rogalski, Brent Ponce and Richard Friedman.
Dr. Eichinger’s practice is divided between shoulder and elbow surgery and includes primary and revision shoulder and elbow arthroplasty, sports medicine of the shoulder and elbow with both open and arthroscopic procedures. Dr. Eichinger, who has extensive experience with ultrasound guided interventions, is the head team physician for the Charleston Riverdogs (Tampa Bay Rays Single A affiliate). Dr. Eichinger originally from Shelton, Washington, attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine. His orthopaedic surgery residency was completed at Madigan Army Medical Center followed by the Harvard Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Fellowship in Boston under the mentorship of Drs. Jon JP Warner, Larry Higgins, Laurent Lafosse and Gilles Walch. His research interests include clinical outcomes research and biomechanical studies involving UCL ligament surgery (Tommy John), complex shoulder instability and shoulder arthroplasty.
Dr. Rogalski’s practice involves both primary and revision shoulder arthroplasty, shoulder and elbow trauma and shoulder and elbow sports medicine. Dr. Rogalski is a team physician for the Charleston Riverdogs. Dr. Rogalski is from Charleston, SC and received his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his orthopaedic surgery residency at the Rothman Orthopedic Institute at Thomas Jefferson University and his shoulder fellowship at Columbia University under the mentorship of Drs. William Levine, Chris Ahmad and Charlie Jobin. His research interests include clinical outcomes in sports / throwing elbow injuries, implant design, shoulder arthroplasty and emerging technologies in orthopedic shoulder and elbow surgery.
Dr. Ponce is the newest member to the division and has extensive experience in shoulder surgery including arthroplasty, trauma and sports medicine. He is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and after graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He then served as an Air Force flight surgeon in Columbus, MS, before completing his residency and fellowship training at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program and Harvard Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship under the mentorship of Drs. Jon JP Warner and Peter Millett. He joins MUSC as the Vice Chair of Faculty Development after serving as the Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at University of Alabama Birmingham and Chair of Research at the Hughston Clinic. He is currently Chair of AO Sports NA and is founder of the Collaborative Orthopaedic Educational Research Group (COERG). In addition to being active in research he is involved with several shoulder implant design teams focusing on shoulder arthroplasty, proximal humerus locking plates and humeral nails. His research interests include biomechanical studies, large database studies, topical issues in education and orthopaedics and anything related to the shoulder.
Dr. Friedman recently retired from clinical practice but is now serving as the Vice Chair of Research for the MUSC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He is originally from Toronto, Canada and completed his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He then received residency and fellowship training at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program. Dr. Friedman is the founder of the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at MUSC and has received over 50 research grants. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles in such journals as the NEJM, JBJS, CORR, and JSES. He remains active in the ASES and has served on the American Medical Association CPT Advisory Committee as the AAOS representative as well as the AAOS CPT Coding Committee. He will be actively involved in the fellow’s participation in clinical and basic science research and in training for practice management to include billing, coding, non-operative management, IME’s and legal aspects of the practice of medicine.
MUSC is a Level I Trauma and Burn Center. The fellow will treat complex elbow and shoulder trauma generated by these centers in the acute phases and delayed reconstruction. The fellowship is educationally oriented and has no mandatory night call. There is no opportunity for moonlighting currently.
Didactic conferences include the preoperative conference every Monday afternoon. There, the fellow will be responsible for presenting cases and reviewing pertinent literature in coordination with the orthopaedic surgery residents on the shoulder and elbow service. Tuesday mornings are dedicated to monthly Grand Rounds, M&M and research. Friday
mornings twice per month are dedicated to covering the entire shoulder and elbow curriculum. Additionally, on the 3rd Monday of every month there is a monthly shoulder and elbow research conference. Every other month, there will be a Monday evening cadaver lab training session for both arthroplasty and arthroscopy depending on the fellow’s training needs.
The fellow is expected to write a research paper of publishable quality during their time at MUSC. Research facilities available to the fellow and housed in the Medical University downtown campus include a biomechanics lab, motion analysis lab, gene therapy lab, stem cell research lab and surgical skills lab. To facilitate your research, we have three full time shoulder and elbow clinical research coordinators. We have relationships and active research collaboration in basic science with an active biobank (the Norris Lab) and multiple biomechanics and computer modeling with the Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Lab. We have two shoulder and elbow databases with over 2500 patients dating from 2013. We also have access to an international database of shoulder arthroplasty patients with over 20,000 patients enrolled. We anticipate the fellow will spend 10% of their time performing research and participating in educational work. The fellowship will sponsor travel to two meetings per year.
Unique aspects of this program include the wide variety of cases and the full spectrum of shoulder and elbow surgery to include primary and revision arthroplasty, upper extremity trauma and sports medicine from throwing athletes to recreational and professional athletes. Case volume is approximately 1700 cases annually. Complex surgeries routinely performed include tendon transfers, open and arthroscopic bone graft procedures (ICBG, DTA, Latarjet), two stage revision glenoid reconstruction (ICBG), rTSA, ORIF and IMN for proximal humerus fractures, and the use of custom shoulder and elbow arthroplasty components.
Josef K. Eichinger MD
Division Head Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
Director Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship
Head Team Physician Charleston Riverdogs
Medical University of South Carolina
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Physical Medicine