Joint replacement: Learning from an expert

Dr. Abdul Ahad Haleem is an orthopedic surgeon at the Kansas City VA Medical Center. He specializes in knee and hip replacement surgery. He is actively involved with the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) Heartland Chapter. While he was president of APPNA in 2014, he arranged a free health clinic in Kansas City, Kansas as a part of their preventative health initiative. Access to healthcare and healthcare education are very important to Dr. Haleem, and he has been actively involved with CAPS Medicine & Healthcare strand for several years. He provides students background information on knee and hip surgeries, then performs a demonstration of a total knee replacement.

Connections to the professional community are foundational to the CAPS experience. Student reflections illustrate the impact of Dr. Haleem’s presentation:

• St. Thomas Aquinas senior Olivia Boster said, “I found Dr. Haleem’s demonstration educational and Inspirational. Technology is changing our world and as he demonstrated, he showed us just how far that technology has come. He helped us understand the types of arthritis and the surgical as well as nonsurgical fixes.”
• BVSW junior Mackade Clark said, “This was a very interesting look into the real world of healthcare and health care problems. This was fascinating to see the connection between what we have learned in the class I\and ways to actively treat the condition.”
• BVN junior Payton Highbarger said, “The knee replacement demo was really interesting. I personally learned a lot from the presentation and the demonstration. The demonstration was so realistic that it really inspired a lot of us to think about getting better at a skill and improving it in the future. I’m very thankful that we had an opportunity to see it live.”