J. Gabe Horneff III, MD, FAAOS, is a big believer in the power of networking. Over the last 10 years, he’s belonged to more than 15 professional societies, and that doesn’t include an even longer list of academic committees he’s been a part of during the same period.
“So much comes down to networking. I’m always trying to network within the various professional societies I belong to,” says Dr. Horneff, a shoulder and elbow surgeon who started at Penn in July 2020. He’s also an assistant professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine. “That’s where you bounce ideas off your peers, get involved in other projects, and learn where the field is heading.”
Dr. Horneff came to appreciate the benefits of networking while he was a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. During his last two years, he was a member of the Leo Leung Orthopaedic Surgery Society. In his last year, he was the group’s vice president. The student-run group aims to provide medical students with some valuable perspective of the life of orthopaedic surgeons and researchers at Penn by fostering relationships between its members and orthopaedic surgery residents and faculty. Leo Leung members are also granted unique access to ongoing research projects at the university.
“As a medical student, it can be intimidating to walk up to an attending and express an interest in orthopaedic surgery. So the society allows these students to meet senior residents and faculty who have an interest in advancing the future of orthopaedic surgery and making sure the society’s members are set up with the right connections,” Dr. Horneff says.
The latter part is particularly vital for a few reasons, he says. First, orthopaedic surgery has become such a competitive field in recent years that medical students serious about pursuing it are expected to display their interest early in their graduate education. That means extensive involvement in related research, which requires developing relationships beyond the parameters of one’s curriculum.
Dr. Horneff found, too, that rotations tend to be more concentrated in general surgery. His involvement in the Leo Leung Society, he says, “helped fill those voids for me.”
Finally, networking encourages aspiring orthopaedic surgeons to understand that their success relies upon a united, team effort, not just their own expertise and ability, however extraordinary it may be.
“The path to and through medical school really emphasizes the individual. It’s all about building yourself up as much as you can,” Dr. Horneff says. “But in this field, especially, it takes a whole team. And that can be something that’s really hard for most medical students to grasp after being hardwired for so long to be the best, individually, they can be.”
The Leo Leung Society remains active, but its activities have been largely curtailed during the pandemic. Dr. Horneff says he’d like to become centrally involved once life for the medical students returns to some semblance of normality. In the meantime, he’s focusing his energy on his practice and research. With regard to the former, Dr. Horneff, who also did his internship in general and orthopaedic surgery and residency in orthopaedic surgery at Penn, is now partnered with David L. Glaser, MD, a surgeons he counts among his greatest influences during his training.
On the research front, he’s started working with some of his fellow shoulder and elbow surgeons to establish a clinical database that, he says, “will ultimately enable us to collect data more effectively for our patients.”