What is your orthopedic subspecialty?
I have a Certificate of Added Qualification in hand and upper extremity surgery. Within that subspecialty, I have developed an expertise in both pediatric and adult complex elbow reconstruction.
What made you decide to go into that specialty?
I was a physical therapist before I went back to medical school.
During that time, I started working in spinal cord and stroke rehab. It was too sad for me, so I switched to sports medicine. I landed a job in Los Angeles with the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, which was at that time the preeminent sports medicine group in the country. I did research, and also took care of patients with sports injuries. I loved that job so I thought I that I would eventually go into sports medicine.
During residency I tried to keep an open mind. I was rotating at the children's hospital, and I had the opportunity to scrub into some congenital hand surgeries. One of the patients was a child who was born without a thumb, the hand surgeon created a thumb using an index finger. It was a very complex and elegant operation. From a professional standpoint, that just seemed like a rewarding path. Hand and upper extremity work fit more with my personality and my professional goals. I feel I fit best when I can focus on something really specific and become an expert at it.
What is the best part about your clinical practice?
It's always the patient connection. When I retired from UCSF to come to Yale, I joke that it was like getting to hear your eulogy without dying because I'd been there for 20 years. When you're in the thick of things working day-in and day-out, people don't generally just pat you on the back and tell you how special they think you are. But I had the opportunity to hear that from literally thousands of patients who, once they found out I was leaving UCSF, wrote me letters, and sent me e-mails to tell me how I had impacted their life and to wish me well.
That's probably the part that I've carried over from my time as a physical therapist: the patient connection has always been what's driven me. Like any other surgeon, I love being in the operating room. A close second to that is the satisfaction that comes from just having the intellectual knowledge that you can transmit to your hands to really fix something. It is highly rewarding.
What makes Yale a unique place for patients to get treatment? In your mind, how are you hoping to make this a unique place for patients to come and get treatment?
The patient connection has always been what's driven me. Like any other surgeon, I love being in the operating room. A close second to that is the satisfaction that comes from just having the intellectual knowledge that you can transmit to your hands to really fix something. It is highly rewarding.
Lisa Lattanza, MD
I think Yale is really poised to provide preeminent orthopedic and musculoskeletal care for this region and beyond. There's already a group of really talented, dedicated surgeons here with the full weight and support of both hospital and School of Medicine administration. I want to build unique comprehensive care programs in all of our areas of sub-specialization, melding research and innovation with clinical care. I think that there's no limit to what can be accomplished here at Yale in this department.
What advice would you give to medical students or to residents?
When you're talking to a young medical student, one of the first things I bring up is what they want their career to look like. It may seem a little trite, but you really do have to first choose what you're passionate about. Be the best version of your most authentic self and success will follow.
I'm certainly not the first person to say that or give that advice but as a physician, you spend long hours working, taking time away from your family and your own personal needs. The thing that allows you to keep going is the love of whatever it is that you're doing. Don't make yourself be a surgeon if you don't love surgery. It's that simple.
I think the other thing that I probably spend more time talking to residents about is – and I’m a bit of a hypocrite on this one – is trying to have balance. Right now, physician burnout is truly a huge problem, bordering on a healthcare crisis, in America. The personality of many physicians and surgeons is to always put everyone else first because that's what we have learned, and to some degree, that's who we are. We have to start stepping back from that to take care of ourselves, and take care of each other. That's some of what I try to impart.
I probably have a bit of a reputation as being pretty tough on residents, but also fun. I'm the kind of teacher and mentor that people come back a year or two after they've graduated and thank me for teaching them how to be a doctor, it happens all of the time. Surgery, medicine, patient care is serious and I try to instill the gravity of the responsibility into students and residents so that they will take the best care possible of their patients in the future. They all know that I care about them professionally and personally as well.
Tell me something you enjoy doing when you're not in the clinics or in surgery.
Number one is travel, and spending time with my family in Italy, or my family in America. Always a part of that is cooking: I love to make homemade sausage, make homemade pasta, and cook with my son. I'm also pretty active. I like to bike, be out on the water (surfing, diving, swimming), and hike. I'm almost as passionate about cooking though as I am surgery.