Freddie Fu

Freddie H. Fu, M.D.

Freddie H. Fu, M.D.,(傅浩強; pinyin: Fù Hàoqiáng) is a pioneer and authority in sports medicine and recognized as a preeminent leader in orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine across the globe.

After serving on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine since 1982 he was appointed in 1998 the David Silver Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery which is home to a large, clinical and research department with 80 faculty members and 60 trainees. In 2010 he was appointed by the University of Pittsburgh as the eighth Distinguished Service Professor which is the highest honor that the University can accord a senior faculty member. There are only seven other Pitt School of Medicine faculty members who have received this honor, and Dr. Fu is the first Distinguished Service Professor appointed from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. A few of the other Pitt School of Medicine faculty members who have received this honor are Thomas Starzl (transplant surgery), Julius Youngner (polio vaccine), Peter Safar (CPR), Bernard Fisher (breast cancer) and Thomas Detre (psychiatry). On September 21, 2012, Dr. Starzl received the Lasker Award.

In addition to his research and administrative duties, Dr. Fu has also serves as the Head Team Physician for the University of Pittsburgh Athletic Department. He also holds secondary appointments at Pitt as Professor of Mechanical and Material Sciences, Physical Therapy, and Health and Physical Activity. Additionally he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Point Park University and an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

Family History

Ho Keong Freddie Fu is fifth generation of the Fu Family who has resided in Hong Kong. He was born in Hong Kong in 1950 and lived on Bonham Road. His family has been primarily involved in the business community in Hong Kong for over 100 years. The Fu ancestry has been traced back for 27 generations through middle to southern China. His Great Uncle, Fu Ping-Ch’ang, played an important role in the history of modern China and the Constitution of the Republic of China. In 1942, he was appointed Ambassador to Moscow, and four years later signed the Paris Treaty. Fu Ping Ch’ang graduated from Hong Kong University in 1916 majoring in civil engineering and in 1931 was the first Chinese to receive an honorary degree from Hong Kong University.

Education

Dr. Fu attended St. Paul’s College, the oldest secondary school in Hong Kong with a mission of bringing together the cultures of the East and West. The Year 2011 marked the 160th anniversary of the founding of St. Paul’s. Famous alumni of St. Paul’s include I. M. Pei, the internationally renowned architect whose important works include Le Louvre Pyramid and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum; and famous journalist, Ching Cheong. Dr. Fu was the Second Predect of the class of 1969, while Ching was Head Prefect. In 2006 while serving as chief China correspondent for the Singaporean newspaper, The Straits Times, Ching was detained for 1,000 days under suspicion of espionage. Journalists, Chinese patriots, and human rights advocates from around the world called for his release saying that the charges were groundless.

In 1969 Freddie was captain of St. Paul’s championship A Grade basketball team coached by Kenneth Ng. Dr. Fu also played lead guitar for a rock and roll band he started at St. Paul's.

At St. Paul's, Dr. Fu was guided by his mentors Geoffrey Emerson, Derek Too, and Frank Drake. In 1970, he followed his older brother and enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire. He received his bachelor of science degree and graduated summa cum laude in 1974 and his BMS degree in 1975. His mentors at Dartmouth were Roy Foster and John George Kemeny, a computer scientist and President of Dartmouth, who taught Dr. Fu freshman calculus. At the suggestion of Dr. Jim Strickler, Dean of Dartmouth Medical School and a Pittsburgh native, he applied to Pitt Medical School where Dartmouth alumnus, leader, and, visionary, Dr. Albert B. Ferguson, Jr., was Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery. He enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and received his MD degree in 1977. He completed his orthopaedic residency under the mentorship of Dr. Ferguson joining the Pitt faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1982. He continues to have a strong connection with Dartmouth as a frequent visitor, homeowner, and member of the Dartmouth Medical School’s Board of Overseers. Both of his children, Gordon and Joyce, are Dartmouth alumni. Each year Dr. Fu hosts a reception for approximately 100 incoming Dartmouth freshmen and alumni from the Western Pennsylvania area.

Career and Accomplishments

Dr. Fu is an active member, holding many offices in numerous academic organizations including the Herodicus Society, American Orthopaedic Association, and Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF). In 2008 Dr. & Mrs. Fu made a $1 million commitment to OREF to fund a new research award. This award will support research directed by a female orthopaedic surgeon researcher on a topic related to sports medicine or by an orthopaedic surgeon researcher of either gender on a topic of special interest to female athletes. Dr. Fu was President of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society and, in 2008, assumed the Presidency] of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and was the first foreign born president in AOSSM’s 40-year history. In 2009, he was named President of the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine, the “United Nations of Sports Medicine” with a membership of 4,000 doctors from 96 countries. In 2011 he received the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS), which recognizes members of the Academy who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding commitment to making the field of orthopaedic surgery more representative of and accessible to diverse patient populations. Dr. Fu is the ninth recipient of the Diversity Award and first Asian American. In 2012, Fu received the Sports Leadership Award from Dapper Dan Charities.

Pitt Orthopaedic Research

The Research Division of Pitt Orthopaedic Surgery has been awarded numerous research grants including many from the National Institutes of Health. Over 30 scientists and 100 lab employees work in 14 diversified and comprehensive laboratories dedicated to outcomes, molecular therapeutics, cancer, orthopaedic engineering, biodynamics, cartilage restoration, growth and development, knee biomechanics, mechanobiology, concussion, cellular and molecular engineering, and spine, stem cell, and neuromuscular research. Dr. Fu’s major research interests lie in clinical outcomes following sports-related injuries, as well as orthopaedic bioengineering. He has pioneered numerous innovative arthroscopic surgical techniques to treat injuries to the knee and shoulder and has performed extensive knee joint research in biomechanics, in vivo kinematics, comparative anatomy, and stem cell and regenerative medicine involving the knee. These efforts have led to the publication of 471 peer reviewed articles, 116 book chapters, and 29 major orthopaedic textbooks on the management of sports injuries (as of 10/18/2012). Dr. Fu also has a total of 9 videos that are featured on the website VuMedi[1], which is the website equivalent a of “YouTube” for surgeons. His VuMedi series of anatomic ACL reconstruction videos have have been viewed a total of 474,678 times with 571 comments (as of 10/18/2012).

In 1996, Dr. Fu received the prestigious Kappa Delta Award for his shoulder research. The Kappa Delta Award is fondly referred to as the “Nobel Prize of orthopaedic research” and considered by the AAOS to be the highest recognition of excellence and promise in orthopaedic research. Over the course of his 30-year career Dr. Fu has received more than 195 honors and awards.

His team currently has more than 100 studies completed or underway to evaluate the merits of the anatomic approach by viewing the knee as an organ. He also has ongoing collaborations with K. Christopher Beard, Ph.D., a vertebrate paleontologist, and other curators at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and veterinarians at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Additionally Dr. Fu is working closely with C. Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., an anthropologist at Kent State University, who reconstructed the skeleton of “Lucy”, the nearly complete fossil of a human ancestor that walked upright more than three million years ago. Such collaborations allow for detailed study of evolution and bony and soft tissue anatomy of the knee.

Center for Sports Medicine

In 1982 Dr. Ferguson named Dr. Fu Chief of Sports Medicine. At that time he not only managed the day-to-day activities but also began building a solid foundation for the program’s long-term strategic goals. Sports medicine was a new discipline and not respected as a division-level subspecialty. The Division had a very humble beginning with 1,000 sq. ft. of space dedicated to sports medicine and was built from the ground up. Because it was successful in providing clinical care, education, and research and had a good team of doctors, the Division was able to grow. His appointment as Chief was marked by productivity and performance as indicated by the Division of Sports Medicine’s accelerated growth to a world-class program within a short span of ten years.

In 2000, Dr. Fu was primarily responsible for the conception and oversight of the design and construction of the $80 million UPMC Sports Performance Complex and oversees one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive sports medicine centers which has become a magnet for more than 600 visiting surgeons and fellows from 50 countries and six continents. Over the years he has effectively nurtured these professional relationships and established worldwide network of surgeons and researchers that extends far beyond US borders. The Center has a multidisciplinary approach to sports injuries and performance and is the first of its kind in the US to have the resources of a major academic and clinical system with professional and collegiate sports team programs. In 1994 the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine was rated as one of the top ten centers in the United States in Men’s Journal magazine and again in 1998 in Self magazine. It attracts local, national, and international patients; and hundreds of elite world-class athletes have been treated at the Center.

ACL Reconstruction Surgery

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is responsible for normal knee function including running, cutting, and pivoting. The ACL consists of two functional bundles (the anteromedial (AM) and the posterolateral (PL)) named for their insertion sites on the tibia. They are joined by a septum of connective tissue and function synergistically in providing both anterior-posterior translation and rotational stability to the knee. Wide variation exists from person to person in the size and length of the ACL and insertion sites.

ACL reconstruction is one of the most common procedures in orthropaedic surgery. A.W. Mayo Robson of Leeds, UK first performed the first known ACL reconstruction in the year 1895 on a 41-year old miner. At this time, ACL surgery was an open procedure. In 1938, Palmer first suggested double-bundle ACL reconstruction, which went largely unrecognized until recent times. Thereafter, conversion from open to arthroscopic procedures became standard with the advent of modern technologies.

Regarding the surgical procedure, one of the most challenging technical problems that Dr. Fu and other orthopaedic surgeons encountered in the 1980s was soft tissue fixation to bone. In 1986, Dr. Fu’s Pitt research team along with researchers at Tufts and MIT developed the world’s first bone anchor. Mitek manufactured the first FDA approved bone anchor, and today there are many other bone anchor manufacturers. Over 1.5 million bone anchors are now used on a yearly basis worldwide. Artificial ligament prosthesis was in vogue for ACL reconstruction in the 1980s. His study in 1987 showed the effect of wear particles from artificial ligaments that can be harmful to the joint surface. Because of this study and the complications noted, artificial ligaments are no longer used.

In 1987 Dr. Fu was awarded a Whitaker Foundation Grant for “Glenohumeral Stability: A Dynamic Model”. This led to further joint kinematics studies and to his current collaborations on ACL surgery with Dr. Scott Tashman in the Pitt Biodynamics Lab. Dr. Fu has performed over 6,000 ACL surgeries since 1982 and is a world leader in anatomic reconstruction of the ACL.

Most ACL reconstruction techniques focused solely on single bundle reconstruction. Traditionally, ACL reconstructions were performed non-anatomically by placing the graft outside of the native insertion sites. ACL reconstruction performed non-anatomically may alter the native kinematics of the knee joint has caused concern for the long-term health of the knee joint over time. Recent research has suggested that anatomic double-bundle ACL reconstruction better restores the native kinematics of the knee joint by comparison to traditional, non-anatomical single bundle techniques.

Anatomy forms the foundation for orthopaedic surgery. Surgical reconstruction of the ACL should therefore be performed anatomically. In Pittsburgh, anatomical ACL reconstruction is defined as the functional restoration of the ACL to its native dimensions, collagen orientation, and insertion sites. Collectively, the goal of anatomic ACL is to provide the patient with the best potential for a successful outcome.

Performing anatomical single- or double-bundle ACL reconstruction requires an in-depth understanding of the native ACL anatomy, as well as an understanding of the ‘Double-Bundle Concept.’ In Pittsburgh, there are four fundamental principles for performing anatomic ACL reconstruction: 1) Appreciate the patient’s native anatomy; 2) Tailor each surgery to the patient’s individualized anatomy and needs; 3) Restore the anatomy by placing the tunnels and grafts in the center of the patient’s native ACL footprints; and 4) Restore function by tensioning the grafts to mimic the native ACL as closely as possible.

The clinical outcomes of anatomic single-bundle versus anatomic double-bundle are not yet fully understood. In that regard, Dr. Freddie Fu, along with Principal Investigators Dr. Scott Tashman and Dr. James Irrgang have received a $2.9 million RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a randomized controlled level-I clinical trial and are the only institution in the world to be comparing anatomic single to double-bundle ACL reconstruction in this fashion.

Medical Education

Fu has been committed to medical students, residents, and fellows demonstrated by his mentorship and training of aspiring and young orthopaedic surgeons. The UPMC orthopaedic residency program has become one of the most sought after program in America, ranking No. 7 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2011. Fifteen graduates have secured Harvard/Mass General faculty appointments, and over 25 of Dr. Fu’s former fellows and residents head prestigious orthopaedic departments or sports medicine programs around the world. The UPMC program has produced more chairmen than any other orthopaedic program. He has supported a new initiative attracting more females to the male-dominated surgical specialty. In December 2010, Dr. and Mrs. Fu established the Freddie and Hilda Fu Endowed Fund in Orthopaedic Surgery by donating $1 million to the University of Pittsburgh to support education and training programs in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Community Activity

Dr. Fu is very active in the Pittsburgh community and promotes the Pittsburgh region at every opportunity. He has served as Chairman of the Board and Executive Medical Director of the Pittsburgh Marathon; Company Physician and member of the Board of Trustees of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Western Pennsylvania; and Team Physician for Mt. Lebanon High School. He is the past president of the Children’s Festival Chorus, a member of the Western Pennsylvania Olympic Committee, an honorary board member of the Parental Stress Center, and the 2002 President of Dapper Dan Charities. He received the Pittsburgh Man of the Year in Sciences Award in 1990 and in 2004 was named Vectors/Pittsburgh Man of the Year for Community Service. In 1993, Dr. Fu was voted “Best Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Physician” by Pittsburgh Magazine. He was selected through a nationwide poll of leading physicians in the Best Doctors in America for Orthopaedic Surgery with special emphasis on Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy. In 1996 Dr. Fu was singled out for excellence in clinical practice in the field of Sports Medicine/Arthroscopy and was featured as “Top Doc” on the cover of Pittsburgh Magazine. Three years later, he was listed as No. 47 of the top "100 Pittsburghers of the Century" by Pittsburgh Magazine. Other Pittsburghers included Andrew Carnegie (No. 3), George Westinghouse (No. 5), Dr. Jonas Salk (No. 9) and Dr. Thomas Starzl (No. 13). In 2007, Dr. Fu was honored with the History Makers Award in the field of Medicine and Health by the Heinz History Center.

Interests and Personal Life

Fu's interests include vinyl phonograph records, particularly the music and songs of the 60s including “Mamma Mia”, and “Jersey Boys”. He is involved in the Pittsburgh cycling community with the UPMC Cycling Team and Team Freddie Fu. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Magazine restaurant review panel, and LuLu's Noodles, a Chinese restaurant on the Pitt campus, has a noodle dish named after him ("The Dr. Fu Special").

In 2007, Dr. Fu visited South Africa to lecture on the anatomically correct tunnel position in double-bundle ACL reconstruction. A local Durban band called “The Spare Keys” wrote and recorded “The Double Bundle Song”.

Fu is married to Hilda Pang Fu, a graduate of St. Stephen’s Girls’ School and Hong Kong University. Hilda holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Public Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a porcelain painter as well as founder and president of Luminari, a Pittsburgh based non-profit formed to broaden minds and inspire innovation. She has served as Director of External Relations of the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, Executive Director of Summer Programs at Point Park University, founding Director of the Pittsburgh Regional Champions, creator of the Pittsburgh Regional Brag Book and former chairwoman of the board of Women and Girls Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and founding board member of ToonSeum. Freddie and Hilda have two children and three grandchildren.

External links

• Orthonet
• Anatomic Single- and Double-Bundle Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction Patient Handout 2011
• Pittsburgh Magazine - May 2011 - Doc Star Dr. Freddie Fu
• Pitt Magazine - Fall 2010 - Man in Motion
• Pittsburgh Magazine - May 2011 - A Day in the Life of Dr. Freddie Fu