The Hospital for Special Surgery 1972–1989; Philip D. Wilson, Jr., Eighth Surgeon-in-Chief

David B. Levine

After nearly a decade as the seventh Surgeon-in-Chief (1963-1972) of The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), Robert Lee Patterson, Jr., MD (1907-1994) retired, having repaired adverse relations between HSS and the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Patterson, who had first joined the staff of The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled in 1936 as a Visiting Surgeon, was able to accomplish this very challenging task mainly through his close relationship with Preston Wade, MD (1901-1982), a general surgeon who had served with Patterson as Co-Chief of the combined New York Hospital-HSS Fracture service. The Board of Trustees of the New York Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled appointed Philip D. Wilson, Jr. MD, as the eighth Surgeon-in-Chief of The Hospital for Special Surgery. He assumed that office on July 1, 1972. Wilson, who had joined the staff as an Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Out-Patient Department in 1951, had trained as an orthopaedic resident at HSS from 1948 to 1950 and in 1951, finished his residency at the University of California Hospital Medical Center, San Francisco. During his 17 years as Surgeon-in-Chief, he led the hospital into the advanced field of implant research and development and building a world-class center for patient care. Additionally, many other orthopaedic services such as Sports Medicine, Scoliosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases became the leaders in their fields. Supporting Departments of Rheumatology, Anesthesia and others were likewise recognized foremost in the country.