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Gary Friedlaender, MD, BS

Wayne O. Southwick Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and Professor of Pathology
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Additional Titles

Chair Emeritus, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation

Contact Info

Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation

P.O. Box 208071

New Haven, CT 06520-8071

United States

About

Titles

Wayne O. Southwick Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and Professor of Pathology

Chair Emeritus, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation

Biography

Dr. Friedlaender received his BA and MD degrees from the University of Michigan and his orthopaedic surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Newington Children’s Hospital. In 1976, after 2 years service in the U.S. Navy assigned to the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Dr. Friedlaender joined the full-time faculty of Yale University School of Medicine and since 1986 has served as the Wayne O. Southwick Professor and, until 2016, Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and Chief of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale New Haven Hospital. Dr. Friedlaender has also trained at Massachusetts General Hospital in musculoskeletal oncology, which remains his primary clinical and research interest.

Learn more about Dr. Friedlaender>>

Dr. Friedlaender has served as President of the American Association of Tissue Banks (1983-85), the American Council on Transplantation (1983-85), the Orthopaedic Research Society (1994-95), the Academic Orthopaedic Society (1995-96), the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons (2001-02) and the American Orthopaedic Association (2010-11). He has also chaired the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Council of Musculoskeletal Specialty Societies and served as a member of the Academy’s Board of Directors and as a member of the AAOS Committee on Ethics. In the past, Dr. Friedlaender served as Chair of the National Arthritis Board, NIAMS (NIH), as a member of the Orthopaedic Study Section at NIH and as a member of the Advisory Council of NIAMS. He was chair of the Research Committees of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Academic Orthopaedic Society and chaired the AAOS work group on Tissue Banking Issues. He served or serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Spine, Journal of Orthopaedic Research and the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; and he has written numerous scientific publications and received national awards for his basic science research (Kappa Delta Award of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Nicholas Andry Award of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons).


Appointments

Education & Training

Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital (1983)
Fellow
Berg-Sloat Traveling Fellowship (Karolinska Inst,Oxford Univ,Univ Nottingham, Royal National Ortho), Sweden and England Bone Biology and Tumor Immunobiology (1976)
Resident
Yale-New Haven Hospital (1974)
Fellow
NIH-Post-doctoral Research Fellowship, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT Oncology and Immunobiology (1973)
Resident
University of Michigan (1971)
Intern
University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan Surgery (1970)
MD
University of Michigan Medical School (1969)
Fellow
Ford Foundation Fellowship in Reproductive Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Reproductive Immunobiology (1969)
BS
University of Michigan, Zoology (1967)

Research

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Gary Friedlaender's published research.

Publications

Featured Publications

2024

2023

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    International Atomic Energy Agency

  • activity

    National Institutes of Health

  • activity

    National Institutes of Health

  • activity

    Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research

  • activity

    Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Clinical Care

Overview

Gary E. Friedlaender, MD, is an orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in musculoskeletal oncology, or benign and malignant tumors of the bones. He leads the Sarcoma Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital, treating rare cancers that involve the bones, cartilage, muscle and other tissues in the body.

Dr. Friedlaender has achieved national recognition for his surgical innovations, including development of limb-salvaging techniques that are now considered essential to orthopaedic oncology surgery.

However, he considers his close connections with his patients to be the key element in his approach to orthopaedics. Good physicians are great communicators—skilled at discovering information that patients may be reluctant to share, or that they have misinterpreted or forgotten, Dr. Friedlaender says. He tells new doctors, “In asking what is bothering the patient, we must convey our interest in hearing what they have to say. Sit down, make eye contact, ask open-ended questions, and, whatever you do, don’t interrupt.”

Dr. Friedlaender is a professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine. He was chair of the department for 30 years, and was responsible for making Yale Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation a leader in the field. He has served as president of several important professional organizations, including the American Orthopaedic Association. Connecticut Magazine has included Dr. Friedlaender in its annual lists of Top Docs in the state.

He says he decided to enter the medical field when he was a child, after watching his father, also a physician, at work. He chose to pursue orthopaedics because he admired the doctors who treated the musculoskeletal injuries he had as a child. He has seen the field change dramatically since then. When he was a resident in the 1970s, the survival rate for osteosarcoma, the most common type of bone cancer, was 15 to 20 percent; now the cure rate is 80 percent.

“I get joy from working in an environment like Yale, and even more so now with Smilow Cancer Hospital,” Dr. Friedlaender says. “There are so many capable, creative and energetic physicians and they are all under one roof. The scientists, nursing staff, and support individuals make the work in oncology not only possible, but rewarding. It’s all about the patient.”

Clinical Specialties

Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation; Musculoskeletal Oncology; Pathology

Fact Sheets

Board Certifications

  • Orthopaedic Surgery

    Certification Organization
    AB of Orthopaedic Surgery
    Original Certification Date
    1975

Yale Medicine News

Get In Touch

Contacts

Appointment Number
Office Fax Number
Clinic Fax Number
Mailing Address

Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation

P.O. Box 208071

New Haven, CT 06520-8071

United States

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation

    Academic Office

    47 College Street

    New Haven, CT 06510

  • Patient Care Locations

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