Selected Podcast
Women in Sports Medicine
Vehniah Tjong MD discusses women in sports medicine. She tells us about her practice at Northwestern Medicine and the athletic programs that she supports. She shares her research interests that are in qualitative patient-centered interviews with a special interest in return to sport. Lastly, she offers advice to female physicians wanting to specialize in sports medicine.
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Learn more about Vehniah Tjong, MD
Vehniah Tjong, MD
Vehniah Tjong, MD Clinical interests are focused on orthopaedic sports medicine with a special interest in hip and knee arthroscopy. Research interests are in qualitative patient-centered interviews with a special interest in return to sport. External activities include on-field sports medicine coverage for Northwestern University football and the United States Soccer Federation.Learn more about Vehniah Tjong, MD
Transcription:
Women in Sports Medicine
Melanie Cole: Welcome to Better Edge, a Northwestern Medicine Podcast for Physicians. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Dr. Vehniah Tjong. She's an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, and she's here to highlight women in sports. Dr. Tjong, I love this topic so much and we were talking a bit off the air about it. It's really such a great topic and not talked about enough. Traditionally orthopedics has been male dominated. I'd like you to start by telling us what led you to pursue this specialty. And tell us more about your practice at Northwestern Medicine, the athletic programs that you support? Tell us about yourself.
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: Thanks again for having me. This is a topic of great passion to me as well. I started off, as an engineer, I worked for Ford Motor Company in Detroit and after the recess. It led me to a practice of medicine. So I went into medical school and I found that I gravitated towards orthopedic surgeons as they were most similar to the engineers that I had previously worked with. After I found my home in orthopedic surgery and completed my residency, what drew me most was towards sports medicine. As the population was younger, eager to return back, to their daily activities.
And, now, I am an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern University and I focus my clinical practice on arthroscopic management of injuries to the hip. And in addition to that, as well as my research, I do take care and have the fortunate opportunity to travel with the Northwestern university football team. As well as, and one of a handful of orthopedic surgeons who take care of the United States soccer women's national team. So it has been a great early part of my career, thus far.
Melanie Cole: What a great story. And thank you so much for sharing go Wildcats and great that you were able to share your story for us. So now your research interests are in qualitative patient-centered interviews with special interest in return to sport and return to play, can you share a unique case report with us?
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: are many that come to mind. But, the most recent one, that, we saw recently return to the field was the case of one of our varsity football athletes who suffered a season ending injury last year, during practice had a pivoting injury to his knee. That resulted in a multi ligament injury of both his ACL, as well as a grade three MCL as well as a lateral meniscus. Typically, most people treat both the ACL, the MCL and the lateral meniscus. However, the evidence of which to treat grade three MCLs is still controversial at this time. Meaning whether to treat it conservatively versus acutely fixing the MCL.
Versus waiting a little bit until an MCL reconstruction becomes available with this particular athlete we chose to treat the MCL conservatively in the context of reconstructing his ACL with his patella tendon. And of course fixing his lateral meniscus. We rehabbed him, followed him very closely throughout his rehabilitation. And one of the great things about our profession is seeing athletes go. Onto the field, doing what they love. And he was able to play in our season opener against Nebraska, just this past week.
Melanie Cole: What an excellent case report. Thank you so much, Dr. Tjong, and you conducted your fellowship at Northwestern Medicine in 2016, and you're now a team orthopedic surgeon. What advice can you provide to female physicians wanting to specialize in sports medicine? I'd like you to speak and just touch briefly on some of the barriers to women practicing orthopedics and what you would like to see changed.
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: Yes, it's certainly become a hot topic, particularly in the past couple of years, the spotlight has really showed heavily on diversity and equity, particularly in surgical specialties. I tell all of my female mentees, those in medical school and those residents who we have now, working hard, putting in the time, following your passion, will lead to where you wanna go in the future. In particular about sports medicine as a specialty, there are several ways to become a team physician, firstly, through the avenue of internal medicine, through pediatrics, through even emergency medicine. And of course, through orthopedics.
So, my advice for females in general, if you wanna become a team physician, it's not necessarily that you have to become a to get there. However, if we want to, again, cater to those who are very interested in orthopedic surgery. I do think that because everyone is now aware of the lack of diversity in our sub-specialty. There is an increase in mentorship, in sponsorship and majority of programs and institutions really on making this a priority to include more females and to really get the word out there, not just from resident to medical students, but also with early high school stem programs, which we're working with in Chicago here as well.
Melanie Cole: So before we wrap up. What would you like to see health systems and medical training programs do to recruit more females to orthopedic surgery? And how do you feel that more women in orthopedics can really benefit this specialty, the community, and ultimately patients?
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: I do think that when you think about the population whom we treat it's equal men and females, and now more than ever, it is important to spread that word, especially to the young girls out there who are looking into stem programs. I really think that it starts at the high school level and at the undergraduate level to encourage them to seek careers that are traditionally male dominated. And the real way to do this is to have these mentorship or sponsorship programs led by female. And of course supported by our male colleagues. And this will create that comfortable environment and encourage those who really wanna follow and pursue this career end up where they wanna go.
Melanie Cole: What a great podcast. Thank you so much, Dr. Tjong For joining us today and sharing your case reports and your incredible expertise as a woman in sports medicine. To refer your patient or for more information, please visit our website at BreakthroughsforPhysicians.NM.org/ortho. To get connected with one of our providers. That concludes this episode of Better Edge, a Northwestern Medicine Podcast for Physicians. I'm Melanie Cole.
Women in Sports Medicine
Melanie Cole: Welcome to Better Edge, a Northwestern Medicine Podcast for Physicians. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Dr. Vehniah Tjong. She's an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, and she's here to highlight women in sports. Dr. Tjong, I love this topic so much and we were talking a bit off the air about it. It's really such a great topic and not talked about enough. Traditionally orthopedics has been male dominated. I'd like you to start by telling us what led you to pursue this specialty. And tell us more about your practice at Northwestern Medicine, the athletic programs that you support? Tell us about yourself.
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: Thanks again for having me. This is a topic of great passion to me as well. I started off, as an engineer, I worked for Ford Motor Company in Detroit and after the recess. It led me to a practice of medicine. So I went into medical school and I found that I gravitated towards orthopedic surgeons as they were most similar to the engineers that I had previously worked with. After I found my home in orthopedic surgery and completed my residency, what drew me most was towards sports medicine. As the population was younger, eager to return back, to their daily activities.
And, now, I am an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern University and I focus my clinical practice on arthroscopic management of injuries to the hip. And in addition to that, as well as my research, I do take care and have the fortunate opportunity to travel with the Northwestern university football team. As well as, and one of a handful of orthopedic surgeons who take care of the United States soccer women's national team. So it has been a great early part of my career, thus far.
Melanie Cole: What a great story. And thank you so much for sharing go Wildcats and great that you were able to share your story for us. So now your research interests are in qualitative patient-centered interviews with special interest in return to sport and return to play, can you share a unique case report with us?
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: are many that come to mind. But, the most recent one, that, we saw recently return to the field was the case of one of our varsity football athletes who suffered a season ending injury last year, during practice had a pivoting injury to his knee. That resulted in a multi ligament injury of both his ACL, as well as a grade three MCL as well as a lateral meniscus. Typically, most people treat both the ACL, the MCL and the lateral meniscus. However, the evidence of which to treat grade three MCLs is still controversial at this time. Meaning whether to treat it conservatively versus acutely fixing the MCL.
Versus waiting a little bit until an MCL reconstruction becomes available with this particular athlete we chose to treat the MCL conservatively in the context of reconstructing his ACL with his patella tendon. And of course fixing his lateral meniscus. We rehabbed him, followed him very closely throughout his rehabilitation. And one of the great things about our profession is seeing athletes go. Onto the field, doing what they love. And he was able to play in our season opener against Nebraska, just this past week.
Melanie Cole: What an excellent case report. Thank you so much, Dr. Tjong, and you conducted your fellowship at Northwestern Medicine in 2016, and you're now a team orthopedic surgeon. What advice can you provide to female physicians wanting to specialize in sports medicine? I'd like you to speak and just touch briefly on some of the barriers to women practicing orthopedics and what you would like to see changed.
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: Yes, it's certainly become a hot topic, particularly in the past couple of years, the spotlight has really showed heavily on diversity and equity, particularly in surgical specialties. I tell all of my female mentees, those in medical school and those residents who we have now, working hard, putting in the time, following your passion, will lead to where you wanna go in the future. In particular about sports medicine as a specialty, there are several ways to become a team physician, firstly, through the avenue of internal medicine, through pediatrics, through even emergency medicine. And of course, through orthopedics.
So, my advice for females in general, if you wanna become a team physician, it's not necessarily that you have to become a to get there. However, if we want to, again, cater to those who are very interested in orthopedic surgery. I do think that because everyone is now aware of the lack of diversity in our sub-specialty. There is an increase in mentorship, in sponsorship and majority of programs and institutions really on making this a priority to include more females and to really get the word out there, not just from resident to medical students, but also with early high school stem programs, which we're working with in Chicago here as well.
Melanie Cole: So before we wrap up. What would you like to see health systems and medical training programs do to recruit more females to orthopedic surgery? And how do you feel that more women in orthopedics can really benefit this specialty, the community, and ultimately patients?
Dr. Vehniah Tjong: I do think that when you think about the population whom we treat it's equal men and females, and now more than ever, it is important to spread that word, especially to the young girls out there who are looking into stem programs. I really think that it starts at the high school level and at the undergraduate level to encourage them to seek careers that are traditionally male dominated. And the real way to do this is to have these mentorship or sponsorship programs led by female. And of course supported by our male colleagues. And this will create that comfortable environment and encourage those who really wanna follow and pursue this career end up where they wanna go.
Melanie Cole: What a great podcast. Thank you so much, Dr. Tjong For joining us today and sharing your case reports and your incredible expertise as a woman in sports medicine. To refer your patient or for more information, please visit our website at BreakthroughsforPhysicians.NM.org/ortho. To get connected with one of our providers. That concludes this episode of Better Edge, a Northwestern Medicine Podcast for Physicians. I'm Melanie Cole.