Clinician Scholar Career Development Program (CSCDP)

Kurt P. Spindler, MD (R13 PI, CSDCP Chair)

Dr. Spindler completed medical school and an orthopaedic residency, including one year of translational research training, at the University of Pennsylvania. He then completed a one-year orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Following his fellowship, Dr. Spindler spent over 22 years at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where for over a decade he was Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation. He led the development of Vanderbilt Sports Medicine as the Director of the program from 1993 through 2013. From 1992-2013, he was also the Head Team Physician for Vanderbilt University’s SEC Division I athletic program. In January of 2014, Dr. Spindler joined the Cleveland Clinic as Vice Chair of Research to further develop a clinical outcome tracking system in clinical practice, promote expansion of the NIH-funded MOON research program as well as other multicenter clinical research, and to lead sports medicine education initiatives. Dr. Spindler is an active member of numerous regional, national, and international orthopaedic and sports medicine professional organizations. He has published more than 125 peer-reviewed publications and presented over 400 talks, principally on clinical outcomes, evidence-based medicine, and knee ligament healing. He is an NIH-funded researcher since 2006 and is an active reviewer on study panels for NIH grants. Dr. Spindler’s clinical expertise includes the evaluation and treatment of all sports medicine injuries, with specific surgical focus on arthroscopic knee surgery, especially ACL reconstruction. Dr.Spindler is the current chair of the AAOS Research Development Committee. 

Timothy M. Wright, PhD (CSCDP Co-Chair)

Dr. Wright is the FM Kirby Chair in Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and Professor of Applied Biomechanics in Orthopaedic Surgery at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He also serves as the Coordinating Program Director of the Weil Cornell NIH-sponsored Clinical and Translational Science Center. Dr. Wright’s research efforts focus on orthopaedic implant performance through approaches that integrate clinical, radiographic, and biomechanical measures. Other studies center on translational research, applying the results of performance studies and techniques such as stress analysis and implant retrieval analysis to adapt clinical ideas into useful devices for the treatment of arthritis. He has helped develop devices for knee, hip, and elbow replacement that have gone on to commercial distribution to hundreds of thousands of patients. Dr. Wright is a past Whitaker Fellow and past recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the NIH. He received a Director’s Special Citation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for his work on a forum of academic, industry, and FDA representatives striving to improve the regulatory process for orthopedic devices. He was the Director on an NIH-funded T32 Training Program in Musculoskeletal Research at HSS for more than a decade and served as the first Director of the Hospital’s NIH-sponsored Core Center for Skeletal Integrity. He is a recipient of honors for excellence in research from the Hip Society and the Knee Society and earned a Kappa Delta Award from AAOS. Dr. Wright served as president of the Orthopedic Research Society in 1992. He is a former consulting editor for research of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and was co-editor of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research® from 1996 to 2014. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Wright is also the recipient of the Alfred Shands Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society for significant lifetime contributions.