A nascent Orthopaedic Trauma Institute at San Francisco General Hospital -- still in the process of being pulled together -- already brings in $5.5 million in annual funding and allows the hospital and partner University of California, San Francisco, to augment both high-end orthopedic research and clinical care at the city's sole Level 1 trauma center.

The institute opened its high-tech Surgical Training Facility with no fanfare in September, and hopes to complete the $4 million buildout of its two-floor facilities at S.F. General in six months. It's staffed by UCSF surgeons, physicians and researchers, plus support staff, and specializes in dealing with orthopedic trauma injuries, often including injuries sustained in traffic accidents.

It does about 2,000 procedures annually, roughly 70 percent of them related to trauma, including everything from wrist and ankle fractures to complex traumatic spine, pelvis or hip-joint injuries, said Ted Miclau, M.D., chief of orthopaedic surgery at the General, and vice chair and director of orthopaedic trauma at UCSF's department of orthopedic surgery.

The location allows researchers and clinicians to work together, including those at related clinical, molecular biology, biomechanical and surgical training laboratory facilities.

All told, OTI brings in $5.5 million annually, between research contracts and grants, patient care revenue and philanthropic support, according to John Houston, division director of the department of orthopedic surgery, who functions as its business manager. The 14,000-square-foot institute, when completed this fall, will occupy two floors at the General. It has a staff of 60, including 13 physicians -- five full-time and five part-time orthopedic specialists, a podiatry specialist and two full-time rehabilitation specialists, plus three full-time researchers and a number of fellows, residents, interns and other students.

To augment clinical funding, and keep doctors up on non-trauma-related care, its physicians also see patients at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco and Regional Medical Center of San Jose, Miclau said.

A key feature is the institute's new surgical training facility or STF, which officials describe as one of a handful of such orthopedic and trauma surgery training sites in the nation, attracting hundreds of surgeons, nurses and others to training courses, some from as far away as Germany, Japan and Taiwan. On the West Coast, Miclau said, only the Tucson Orthopaedic Institute and the Medical Education & Research Institute of Henderson, Nev., compare, and they don't include the STF's academic components.

Funding for OTI has included a $150,000 grant from the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, internal resources, and purchases of discounted or at-cost equipment from orthopedic implant companies such as Stryker and Philips.

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