San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, August 7, 2009
Girls get hands-on orthopedic experience
The teenage girls peered behind Dr. Lisa Lattanza as the physician pointed inside the patient's elbow to the squishy material that was used cover up worn-out cartilage after a long-term dislocation.
"It looks like the ligament is attached and that it still has integrity," the UCSF orthopedic surgeon explained, sounding relieved that the patient would not have to endure a longer, more complex operation to repair her damaged elbow.
Far from being grossed out by viewing the inner workings of the elbow through layers of skin, fat and muscle, 16-year-old Kimberly Elder declared the experience "cool."
Elder and 14 other girls participated in a monthlong pilot program that started in July. The program was designed to encourage girls to pursue careers in orthopedic surgery and engineering, two fields traditionally dominated by men.
It was created by UCSF faculty members Lattanza and Jenni Buckley, a biomechanical engineering professor who heads the Biomechanical Testing Facility at San Francisco General Hospital. They named it after Dr. Jacquelin Perry, a pioneering surgeon who in 1955 became the first woman to graduate from UCSF's orthopedic residency program.
The Perry Outreach Program is open to Bay Area public high school girls. The first class of 15 students just "graduated" after participating in 24 hours of lectures, workshops and hands-on activities over the course of four weeks.
Women account for just 3 percent of board-certified orthopedic surgeons and less than 10 percent of all orthopedic residents nationwide, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
In engineering, only 19 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees are earned by women and just 11 percent of working engineers are female, research by the American Society for Engineering and the Society of Women Engineers has shown.
Little encouragement
Women in engineering and orthopedic surgery say girls typically lack exposure to erector sets, power tools and other mechanical devices that are used in both these disciplines. In addition, girls don't often receive the encouragement in math and science that boys do, and don't have as many role models.
"When you see people like you doing something, you think 'I can do that too,' " Lattanza said.
Lattanza said orthopedics is male-dominated in part because of the field's association with sports, its use of power tools to cut bone and a reputation for requiring strength in surgery.
"You don't have to be a brute to be an orthopedic surgeon," she said. "I say you have to be smarter than the bone, not stronger than the bone."
As part of the Perry Program, the students - from Milpitas High School, Acalanes High School in Lafayette, June Jordan School for Equity and Lowell High School, both in San Francisco - had to build a finger using an erector set, create and repair a fracture using synthetic bone, and repair a tendon using pig tissue and then test its strength. UCSF faculty members donated their time, giving lectures and offering workshops.
Looking to expand
The program's organizers hope to get funding from private donors and other sources to expand the program next summer, Buckley said.
Kimberly Elder, from Acalanes, said she liked being exposed to the equipment and experiments. "I always thought I wanted to be a doctor. This has been really hands-on, and I got to see if this is really what I want to do," she said.
Lena Lam, also 16, who will be a senior at Milpitas High School, said she has always had an interest in science and was less intimated than most by tools.
"In my family whenever my dad needs help, we help him," said Lam, the oldest of four girls.
Kate Liddle, a recent graduate in bioengineering from UC Berkeley who helped coordinate the program, said she enjoyed watching the girls' confidence grow.
"The first day they were ambivalent about using the tools, but by the last day they were grabbing the Allen wrenches out of our hands," she said.