Freddie H. Fu, M.D.: A Force of Nature

Super doc…bad patient…

Eventually honored with a lifetime service award for his dedication to the local bicycle community, Dr. Fu also has a deep understanding of what it means to be an orthopedic patient. “I have been hit by cars on several occasions and experienced open fractures. ‘I am a bad patient because I demand to go back to work very quickly…one time it was two weeks after an accident involving multiple fractures.’”

Given such dedication to his work, Dr. Fu was promoted to clinical vice chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery in 1990 and executive vice chairman in 1994. “When I became chair, I had to relinquish certain roles and delegate some work to others. I also had to rebuild the department, which took roughly four years.”

Head team physician for the University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics since 1986, Dr. Fu helped establish the Sports and Preventive Medicine Institute, now the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, which has evolved into one of the most comprehensive sports medicine clinical and research centers in the world. “I am proud to have helped design this unusual complex, which includes, among other things, 34 large exam rooms, a Neuromuscular Research Laboratory, and a plyometric training floor to help recovering athletes regain power and rapid movement capabilities. It also houses the indoor and outdoor training facilities of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

The backstory on the knee…

“I began doing arthroscopic ACL surgery in the early to mid 1980s. It was particularly difficult to break into knee research at the time, so I began doing biomechanical shoulder research. Much of that work eventually transferred to ACL research.”

“Dr. Jon Warner and I worked to develop the robotic technology to study, ‘A Dynamic Model for Motion and Stability of the Glenohumeral Joint,’ work that won the Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award in 1996. This provided the foundation for the research. ‘Anatomic Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Changing Paradigm” that won the Kappa Delta award in 2014.’”

“My work expanded to proprioception—which no one was doing at the time—and then on to the issue of why females tear their ACLs more than males. That led to our efforts to instruct female athletes on how to jump and land in a safe manner. This work expanded to include prevention of injuries in elite military groups. This extensive funding and collaboration led to the formation of the Warrior Human Performance Research Center.”

Asked what he finds enchanting about the ACL in particular, Dr. Fu told OTW, “Early in my career I was fortunate to do some work with Dr. Owen Lovejoy, the anthropologist who reconstructed the famed Lucy, the 3.2 million year-old upright walking human discovered in Ethiopia 40 years ago. Through that experience I recognized that in the evolution of the human body the knee is the only structure that has a cruciate ligament, meaning that the knee can do many things that other joints cannot.”

“And, unlike the shoulder, for example, it can do these things with control and a good deal of mobility. Historically, we didn’t think that the cruciate was important until the ’70s or ’80s. However, once it became clear that it is the cruciate that allows us to function and play sports then people began giving it more attention.”