Dr. Matthew D. Riedel joined Yale Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation as an assistant professor on August 19.
Riedel, an orthopaedic trauma surgeon and graduate of Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, says his passion for trying to unravel mechanical problems started at his father’s tool and die shop. He appreciated the puzzles his father faced in making the proper tools for the job, and the problem-solving associated with it. He wasn’t inherently focused on medicine from a young age, but was attracted to the field that allowed him to take an engineer’s approach to making patients whole.
Orthopaedic traumatologists are required to be jacks-of-all-trades, Riedel says.
“Everything that goes on here at Yale is centered around improving care and life for the patients. You have every different subspecialty available where physicians are able to work together as a team to solve complex problems using the latest research and technologies. That’s very appealing to me,” Riedel says.
Riedel joins the department after completing a post-doctoral fellowship in orthopaedic traumatology at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at Harvard Medical School’s Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program in June 2018, and was previously a Doris Duke Pre-Doctoral Clinical Research Fellow at Columbia University Medical Center.
“I love that my week is a mix of different things. I’m operating or in clinic most days each week. I’m doing research. I’m teaching. I’m doing all of these different things so that every day is different than the last, but it also allows me to keep things fresh,” Riedel says. “Every day I have an opportunity to help people, whether that’s by teaching, surgery, or improving people’s lives.”
Everything that goes on here at Yale is centered around improving care and life for the patients. You have every different subspecialty available where physicians are able to work together as a team to solve complex problems using the latest research and technologies. That’s very appealing to me.
Dr. Matthew Riedel
He takes his approach to the laboratory too, where his research has been published in Injury and The Journal of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Riedel says that working at Yale allows him to not only continue performing surgeries, but also to be at the forefront of the latest research.
“I’ve always enjoyed putting things together and the challenge of facing complex problems,” Riedel says. “Every case is different as a trauma surgeon. Everything you do, you think about in different ways. It challenges you every day because you don’t know what the next day may bring. I think that’s really fun and interesting to me.”
Riedel will be seeing patients in Guilford, Milford, and New Haven, where he will also be performing surgeries.
He lives in Shelton with his wife, Angelica, where they are currently taking recommendations for the best barbeque joints in the state.