February Featured Author

Frederick A. Matsen III, MD
University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics

From the February Issue: Rotator Cuff Repair –
Published Evidence on Factors Associated With Repair Integrity and Clinical Outcome

Podcast: Listen to Dr. Matsen discuss his article in the February issue.

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Rick Matsen, born in Austin, Texas, received his undergraduate training at the University of Texas, in Austin and his MD degree in 1968 from Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, 1968. He did a surgical internship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore followed by two years at the National Institute of Neurological, Disease and Stroke in Bethesda. Before the days of formal shoulder fellowships, he spent two extended periods at Columbia-Presbyterian in New York with Dr. Charles Neer, the founder of modern shoulder surgery. After a residency at the University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, he joined the faculty there in 1974 and continues in this role to the present, including 23 years as chairman.

He received the American, British, and Canadian Orthopaedic Association Traveling Fellowship to Great Britain and South Africa in 1983. He was a founding member of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons along with Drs. Neer, Russ Warren, Bob Cofield, Rich Hawkins, Charles Rockwood and others. He served as president of this organization in 1991. In 2003 he became the inaugural holder of the Douglas T. Harryman II/DePuy Endowed Chair in Shoulder Research, a position he retains to the present.

He, along with his team at the University of Washington, have published over 200 peer reviewed articles on topics ranging from compartmental syndromes and amputation level selection, to ethics, malpractice and conflicts of interest, with a most recent focus on the shoulder. His books include Practical Evaluation and Management of the Shoulder, The Shoulder, a Balance of Mobility and Stability, and The Shoulder, which he co-edits along with Charles Rockwood. He has a particular interest in the evaluation and management of shoulder arthritis and rotator cuff disease – especially in trying to determine the value to the patient of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. He actively posts on the blog, shoulderarthritis.blogspot.com, which now contains over 1,100 posts with over 600,000 page views from over 100 different countries.

He remains active in surgical and clinical practice, clinical research and the shoulder fellowship at the University of Washington. When not at work, he can be found hiking, camping, cycling, skiing, birding and fishing with his wife, Anne.

Selected Other Published Works in AJSM

Differential Suture Loading in an Experimental Rotator Cuff Repair Am J Sports Med February 2009 37 324–329; published online before print October 8, 2008, doi:10.1177/0363546508324308

Anteroposterior Centering of the Humeral Head on the Glenoid In Vivo Am J Sports Med May 2002 30 382–387