Posts by Mitchel B. Harris, MD
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Transferred Patients With Lower Extremity Fractures Are at High-Risk of Major Complications
Trauma surgeons at Mass General Brigham showed that, as a group, patients transferred from another facility before surgery for pelvic, acetabular, or lower extremity fractures are medically sicker and are at significantly higher risk of major postoperative complications than patients admitted from home.
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Two Mass General Research Groups Share Resources, Lab Space and a Vision for the Future
Massachusetts General Hospital's Foot and Ankle Research and Innovation Lab (FARIL) and the SORG Research Group have combined their diverse, international teams to conduct clinical research and develop medical devices and AI-based clinical decision support tools for use in the field of orthopedic surgery and beyond.
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Sociodemographic Factors Influence Whether Orthopedic Surgery Patients Complete PROMs
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers found that 60% of patients in orthopedic surgery clinics, especially racial/ethnic minorities and others who commonly face disparities in care, did not complete patient-reported outcome measures. This variability could skew the results of clinical outcomes research.
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Mass General Program Encourages Diversity in Orthopedics
Mass General's Summer Research Trainee Program offers research and career development mentorship for under-represented minorities in medicine.
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Research Advances from Mass General Orthopaedics
Researchers from the Department of Orthopaedics discuss the clinical and translational work they are doing at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Research Innovations from Mass General Orthopaedics
Mitchel Harris, MD, chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the latest research projects out of the Department of Orthopaedics, including efforts to help patients control pain and infection from total joint replacement and discovering targeted treatments for spinal cancer.
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Orthopaedic Trauma and Spine Research
In this video, Mitchel Harris, MD, chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses his wide-ranging research on orthopedic trauma and spine.
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New Nomogram Helps Clinicians Choose Initial Treatment of Spinal Epidural Abscess
For patients with spinal epidural abscess, the initial choice between surgery and nonoperative management is crucial, as failure of nonoperative treatment can have dire consequences. Orthopedic surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital developed a nomogram to help clinicians identify patients at high risk of failure from initial non-operative management.
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New Tools Assess Risk of Motor Deficit, Short-term Mortality in Patients with Spinal Epidural Abscess
Orthopedic surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed tools to help clinicians predict pretreatment motor deficit and 90-day mortality in individual patients with a spinal epidural abscess.
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No Survival Difference Found Between Fixation and Revision After Vancouver B Fracture
No research has ever compared patient survival after the major treatment options for Vancouver B periprosthetic femur fractures. Surgeons set out to bridge that knowledge gap.
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Adding Fusion to Decompression for Synovial Facet Cysts Does Not Influence Symptom Recurrence
Synovial cysts are often associated with spinal instability. Adding fusion to decompression surgery might improve outcomes, but previous studies of that approach have yielded contradictory results. Massachusetts General Hospital surgeons examined hundreds of patient records to find answers.
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Timing of Humeral Shaft Fracture Repair Does Not Affect Risk of Iatrogenic Radial Nerve Injury
Radial nerve palsy is common after reduction and fixation of diaphyseal humerus fractures, which often influences patients to pursue nonsurgical management. Mass General researchers were part of the first team to evaluate whether earlier surgery reduces the risk.
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Most Patients Believe Marijuana Is Effective for Pain Relief After Musculoskeletal Injury
With medical marijuana becoming legal in many states, patients want to know whether it can help them during orthopedic trauma recovery. Mass General physicians led the first research team to investigate.
Biography
With more than 25 years of experience in academic orthopaedic surgery, Mitchel B. Harris, MD, has been named chief of the Department of Orthopaedics at Massachusetts General Hospital, effective October 1, 2017. Previously, Dr. Harris served as the chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In addition to his leadership role in trauma, he spent 14 years serving as an active member of the Orthopaedic Spine Service at BWH and initiated a weekly multidisciplinary spinal oncology meeting.
After earning his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1984, Dr. Harris completed his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1989. He then went to the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Science Center, for his fellowship in Orthopaedic Spine and Trauma in 1990, followed by a fellowship in Orthopaedic Spine and Trauma Surgery at Queen's Medical Centre in the United Kingdom in 1994.
Dr. Harris is a widely respected and beloved teacher. He received the coveted Golden Apple Award, presented to the Harvard Orthopaedic faculty member identified by the residents as the teacher/mentor of the year. He also has received numerous faculty teaching awards in his previous academic positions.
Among his many accolades, Dr. Harris received the BWH Hippocrates Society Humanitarian Award and both held the chair position and served as a mentor for the AAOS’s Leadership Fellows Committee. He is the inaugural recipient of the Stepping Strong Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery while serving as the founding director of the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation. Dr. Harris chaired a Department of Defense peer-reviewed orthopedic research program, and has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed academic publications.
Orthopaedic Care at Mass General
At Mass General, our world-class physicians and surgeons treat the full spectrum of musculoskeletal conditions throughout the body, from sprains and strains on the athletic field to carpal tunnel syndrome. Our team offers innovative, research-based treatments that range from limb-saving oncological procedures to complex spinal reconstruction.