A unified front: Second Vice President Michael L. Parks, MD, frames AAOS’ future

Michael L. Parks, MD, FAAOS, came to New York City for a total joint replacement fellowship, anticipating he would hone his skills addressing knee and hip arthritis. But he also found himself fascinated by how differently patients approached managing their diseased joints. This observation became a career-long fascination with understanding and addressing how social determinants of health impact orthopaedic patients. As the current second vice president of AAOS, Dr. Parks believes this focus enhances his ability to lead. He shared these perspectives with AAOS Now Deputy Editor Alexandra Page, MD, FAAOS, during an interview at the AAOS 2025 Annual Meeting.

Understanding the patient perspective
Dr. Parks’ research explores how environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors drive differences in orthopaedic outcomes. For instance, two patients with the same condition who live in different neighborhoods or speak different languages may require different levels of care to achieve the same outcomes.

Reflecting on the road that led to this work, Dr. Parks recalled that some patients “would come in with early arthritic disease, and they wanted the solution, and they were quick to have it. And then there were patients who were paralyzed with fear, and often those patients had more [advanced] disease than the other group.” It seemed social and cultural factors differed between the two groups. “We wanted to look at people by their gender, by their ethnicity, and we wanted to understand the factors that led to their decision-making.”

Dr. Parks’ favorite word is “emic,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “of, relating to, or involving analysis of cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who participates in the culture being studied.” For an orthopaedic surgeon, this could mean understanding “differences between groups of patients in terms of their outcomes [and] their expectations,” Dr. Parks said. “We need to meet patients where they are. We’ve done all sorts of work, and we found that who the patient is often determines the type of result that we get.”

However, keeping the patient-centered focus that Dr. Parks is passionate about is increasingly challenging in the changing healthcare landscape. He reflected on regulation and other changes during his decades in practice that have impacted his ability to care for patients, such as increasing insurance preauthorization requirements, higher costs of delivering care, and stagnant physician reimbursement.

“The way that we deliver medicine and care to our patients is constantly under threat,” he said. “In order to meet [our patients’ needs,] we’re going to have to be nimble enough to think, ‘How do we change our delivery system?’ Not only do we have to work together, but we have to be thoughtful going forward. How do we remain relevant to our patients? How do we meet them where they are, and how do we then effectively do what we do to get good results providing care?”

To that end, medical societies play a role in helping physicians better engage with patients. AAOS’ latest Strategic Plan, which was updated in February 2024, has added a patient focus, with a goal to “lead health transformation to optimize value for all.” AAOS leadership holds responsibility for implementing this Strategic Plan, and with his research background, Dr. Parks believes he brings a specific benefit in this area. “My wide diversity of interests, and my type of … socio-cultural research … is a unique perspective,” he said.

Dr. Parks acknowledged that this focus on patients has been spearheaded by AAOS President Annunziato (Ned) Amendola, MD, FAAOS. Dr. Amendola has established a task force to understand the needs of patients and how to shape AAOS to meet those needs.

Strength in numbers
Before his current role, Dr. Parks served as AAOS treasurer, a role that put him on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors and offered deep and broad exposure to the issues facing AAOS and its membership. Dr. Parks’ previous leadership positions include past president of both the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation and the New York State Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He was a member of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Board of Directors and served many years on the Steering Committee of Movement Is Life, a multi-stakeholder group devoted to supporting musculoskeletal health in underserved communities.

From those varied experiences, Dr. Parks has developed a leadership style focused on consensus building. “One of the things that challenges our field and our ability to practice is the fragmentation — our ability to group ourselves in terms of specialties and to divide ourselves further,” he said. “There is strength in consensus.”

In fact, his experience engaging in political advocacy helped him understand the power of a unified front. “Often, any policy people, whether they’re on [Capitol Hill] or they’re with insurers, they [just] see us as orthopaedists. You’re an orthopaedist. I’m an orthopaedist. You have a different specialty than I do, but they don’t see that,” he explained.

“My leadership experience has been primarily characterized by a desire and a drive for unity,” Dr. Parks shared. “We have strength in numbers, and I think that we have more common things that unite us than things that divide us. … The hallmark of my leadership is trying to build consensus and trying to get us to work together to move the needle forward.”

Vision for the future
Considering the future AAOS under his leadership, Dr. Parks offered the analogy of turning a battleship. “[It’s not] like a race car. It takes a while to change [the direction of] a battleship, because the battleship is very strong and it’s often well-directed. The Academy is definitely that ship,” he explained.

As with a ship, adjustments to the current course of an organization with AAOS’ scale and momentum will not be instantaneous. “But we have to turn nonetheless, and we have to meet the needs [of] our constituents, our Fellows. They learn differently. They think differently. What do we do to remain relevant in the lives of orthopaedists and help them deliver care to their patients? That is a primary question that I’d like to answer, and I’d like to make sure that we are a part of that for every orthopaedist practicing in this country.”

As he continues the four-year term toward the position of AAOS president, Dr. Parks is poised to lead the charge in uniting orthopaedic surgeons toward the goal of advancing patient care.

Alexandra E. Page, MD, FAAOS, is a foot and ankle specialist in private practice in San Diego, California, and the deputy editor of AAOS Now.