Meet the AOC MedTech Advisory Council

A Transformative Collaboration in Orthopaedics

The Academic Orthopaedic Consortium (AOC) is excited and honored to announce that 19 Academic Orthopaedic Chairs, Vice Chairs, and Faculty Leaders across our elite academic orthopaedic community have been working alongside select MedTech C-Suite Leaders to foster a more efficient, trust-based, and scalable approach to evaluating, validating, educating, and adopting new technologies across Orthopaedic Departments, Academic Medical Centers, and Industry.

By strengthening these bonds and working arm-in-arm to streamline bureaucratic and administrative processes, together we hope to demonstrate that even incremental improvements in collaboration can drive profound impact in patient care, research, and education. We are energized by the momentum of this work and look forward to continuing to shape the future of orthopedic innovation—together.  With NIH funding caps tightening, the need for strong collaboration between academia and industry has never been more urgent.

This initiative builds upon a white paper commissioned by AOC and delivered by Eoghan Hurley, MD, PhD, further guiding our efforts to create a new model for partnership and innovation.

We are especially grateful to our exceptional Co-Chairs for their leadership in orchestrating these efforts:

🔹 Joshua J. Jacobs, MD – Chair-Emeritus, Midwest Rush
🔹 Leslie Storms, MBA – President, Johnson & Johnson MedTech
🔹 Stuart Simpson – CEO, ThinkSurgical
🔹 Rafael Sierra, MD – Chair, Mayo Clinic

A heartfelt thank you to our incredible roster of AOC and Industry Leaders who have been appointed to our AOC MedTech Advisory Council. We deeply appreciate the leadership of our Co-Chairs, who represent both large and small AMCs and MedTech companies, ensuring diverse perspectives as we lead this important work forward.

Meet the MedTech Advisory Council

Joshua J. Jacobs, MD

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Chair-Emeritus, Midwest Rush

Xavier Rivera

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Director, Academic Medical Centers Customer Solutions, DePuy Synthes

Stuart Simpson

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair, Executive Committee

CEO, ThinkSurgical

Rafael Sierra, MD

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Chair, Division of Hip and Knee, Mayo Clinic

Scott Boden, MD

Senior Advisor to CEO; AOC Board of Advisors; AOC Council Chair; AOC MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Executive Vice President for University Clinical Affairs and Dean, Indiana University School of Medicine

Matthew Dietz, MD

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Chair, West Virginia

Brett Estervig

Executive VP & GM, Orthopedics, Smith+Nephew

Headshot Chad Evans

Chad Evans

MedTech Advisory Executive Committee

VP/GM Customer Solutions, Stryker

Craig Gaffin

President, Global Orthopaedics, Smith+Nephew

Michael R. Gagnon, MBA

Founder & CEO, AOC Connect

Chief Administrative Officer – Emeritus, Duke University Orthopaedics; Founder & CEO, JobsInOrtho

Grant Garrigues, MD

Chief Medical Officer, AOC Connect

Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush

Daniel Goltz, MD, MBA

Senior Director, AOC Health Policy & Economic Value Analysis

Orthopaedic Surgeon - Shoulder & Elbow Specialist, Rothman Orthopaedics

Catherine Humphrey, MD, MBA

MedTech Advisory Executive Committee

Associate Chief Medical Officer, University of Rochester Health System

Brendan Shook

MedTech Advisory Executive Committee

Director of Teaching Institute Marketing, Smith + Nephew Orthopaedics

Eoghan T. Hurley, MB BCh BAO, MCh, PhD

Senior Director, AOC Delphi Survey and Analysis

Duke University

Joshua J. Jacobs, MD

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Chair-Emeritus, Midwest Rush

Safdar Khan, MD

Vice Chair, UC Davis

Adam Levin, MD

Vice Chair, Johns Hopkins

Albert Lin, MD

Vice Chair, Pittsburgh

R. Lor Randall, MD

Chair, UC Davis

Xavier Rivera

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Director, Academic Medical Centers Customer Solutions, DePuy Synthes

Simran Sabharwal

Vice President, US Commercial Marketing, Orthopedics, Smith+Nephew

Stuart Simpson

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair, Executive Committee

CEO, ThinkSurgical

Michael Stauff, MD

Chair, UMASS

Aaron Chamberlain, MD

Senior Medical Director, Intermountain Health

Cynthia Emory, MD, MBA

Professor and Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Jonathan Gustafson, PhD

Senior Director, Clinical Research Projects, AOC Connect

Assistant Professor; IBTS Fellowship Research Director; Orthopaedic Surgery; Rush University Medical Center

AOC Connect Distinguished Lecturer Mitchel Harris MD

Mitchel Harris, MD

Chair, Massachusetts General Hospital

Karl Koenig, MD

Chair, University of Texas, Austin

Regis J. O’Keefe, MD, PhD

MedTech Advisory Executive Committee

Fred C. Reynolds Professor and Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine

Rafael Sierra, MD

MedTech Advisory Co-Chair & Executive Committee

Chair, Division of Hip and Knee, Mayo Clinic

Rick Wright, MD

Chair, Vanderbilt

William Vasileff, MD

MedTech Advisory Executive Committee

Associate Professor Orthopaedic Surgery, Associate Medical Director Supply Chain/Value Analysis, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

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