Andrew D. Bunta, MD, FAOA is being recognized as an AOA Pillar of the Orthopaedic Profession for his leadership, mentoring, and lifelong contributions to orthopaedic surgery during his distinguished career. The champion for this effort on his behalf is Kyle J. Jeray, MD, FAOA.
Bio
Dr. Andrew D. Bunta is an orthopaedic surgeon and a longtime member of the faculty of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, dating from 1974. He holds undergraduate and medical school degrees from Northwestern University, where he also received his orthopaedic surgery residency training. An Associate Professor since 2005, he served as the Vice-Chairman of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM), Department of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1999 until 2015. Prior to that he functioned as the Division Director of Orthopaedic Surgery, for nearly 25 Years, at Lutheran General Hospital (LGH), a large Chicago suburban hospital in Park Ridge,Il, which has an active trauma center. As a general orthopaedic surgeon, his practice was centered in trauma as well as hip and knee replacement surgery. Throughout his career he was closely associated with the administration of the Northwestern/ McGaw Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Training Program at both LGH and Northwestern, functioning as the Associate Program Director of that residency program from 1999 until 2012.
Upon joining the full-time faculty at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) and Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM) in 1999, he focused his practice on arthritic conditions, including hip and knee joint replacement surgery. Soon after arrival at NMH, he created and chaired, for 13 years, the Orthopaedic Surgery Oversight Committee, under the auspices of the Operating Room Administrative Staff.
In addition, his long-standing, special interest in bone health issues led to his leadership in establishing the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Bone Health medical sub-specialty and its Bone Health and Osteoporosis Program in 2002, where he functioned as the Associate Director until 2012. His clinical research has focused on the challenges and benefits of an osteoporosis/fracture intervention program, in both hospital and out-patient settings, as an approach to secondary fracture prevention in geriatric patients, who have already sustained a fracture.
Those interests ultimately resulted in his service, from 2007 to 2013, as the initial Chair of the AOA Own the Bone Steering Committee that guides Own the Bone, the national, quality improvement initiative and secondary fracture prevention program sponsored by the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA). Subsequently, he served as the Chairman of the AOA/ Own the Bone Multidisciplinary Advisory Board until 2016. Currently he functions as the Co-moderator of the AOA/OTB ECHO program.
Additional interests include quality and safety issues as applied in the operating room and inpatient settings. That led to his participation and presentations in numerous Team Training programs and STEPPS presentations for NMH and other hospitals over the years.
Dr. Bunta is a diplomat of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He is also a member of the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS).
After nearly four decades of the clinical practice of general orthopaedic surgery, and more recently hip and knee arthroplasty, Dr. Bunta ceased clinical practice in 2012. Since then he has functioned in various Medical Director roles in the Northwestern Medicine system involving both the orthopaedic inpatient unit at NMH and Clinical Documentation Improvement at NMH and NMLake Forest Hospital (NMLFH).
The AOA congratulates Dr. Bunta on being recognized as an AOA Pillar of the Orthopaedic Profession and for his constant support of the AOA programs and Own the Bone initiatives throughout his career.
Tribute
“Andy Bunta is the embodiment of the term “Pillar” within the field of orthopaedics and even more importantly the field of medicine. He has worked tirelessly at Northwestern University and their affiliated hospitals for over 50 years, starting as a medical student there in 1963. He has personally recruited and developed hundreds of orthopaedic surgeons that are responsible for the care of hundreds of thousands of patients in the Chicago area and beyond. In the leadership and education realm, Northwestern, the AOA, and our profession has been enhanced in numerous ways directly by his leadership and professionalism. Having been a champion of leadership, he joined the AOA in 2003. With his long-standing interest and research in bone health and osteoporosis issues he established a Bone Health Program at Northwestern in 2002, way ahead of the curve. He has been one of an elite group of orthopaedic surgeons that has led the national charge in bone health, influencing physicians in many areas of medicine (notably beyond orthopedic surgeons) to recognize and treat patients for their bone health.
If you ever had the chance to meet Andy, you will know that his personality and love for his profession is immediately recognizable, and his humility and selflessness to all endearing. Andy Bunta is the embodiment of a “Pillar” within Orthopaedic Surgery and beyond.”
– Kyle J. Jeray, MD, FAOA
Dr. Bunta’s Champion