Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center (MSMOC) has provided an advanced specialty training program for orthopaedic surgeons for the last 25 years. During that period, MSMOC has graduated almost 100 fellowship trained sports medicine surgeons from across the United States. This training program has been lauded as one of the best in the country, offering both excellent surgical training and research opportunities. These newly fellowship trained MSMOC surgeons then, in turn, provide expert patient care across the nation to the communities that they serve. The sports medicine fellowship program’s director, Dr. Larry Field, is an orthopedic surgeon who has devoted the past twenty-five years to building both a career and a clinical institution for providing world class orthopedic care. His efforts have been both consistent and multi-faceted, and the outcome has resulted in an elite level of professional recognition.
Dr. Field, a native of Natchez, Mississippi, received his medical degree and completed his orthopedic residency at The University of Mississippi School of Medicine (UMMC) from 1984 to 1993. Following his training at UMMC, Dr. Field became focused on orthopedic problems related to the shoulder and elbow during his sports medicine fellowship education at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Upon returning to Mississippi in 1994, Dr. Field joined four other orthopedic surgeons at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center.
Over the subsequent two and a half decades, MSMOC has grown into a multidisciplinary specialty orthopedic center with seventeen surgeons, six clinical locations and a state-of-the-art outpatient surgical center. Correspondingly, Dr. Field’s impact on the treatment of shoulder and elbow conditions has extended much beyond his direct surgical patient care, as a result of his longstanding commitment to teaching, association service, and educational leadership.
Over his career, Dr. Field has played an integral role in MSMOC’s sports medicine fellowship program and has served as the program’s director for the last fifteen years. The advanced orthopedic sports medicine training provided to the fellows is largely a reflection of the clinical expertise accumulated by Dr. Field and his talented and experienced subspecialist surgeon partners.
Another aspect of Dr. Field’s educational impact on the treatment of upper extremity orthopedic injuries is evidenced through the depth of sustained publication that he has achieved. From 1994 until today, Dr. Field has shared his clinical insights through the publication of six books, eighty-six book chapters, one hundred nineteen scientific journal articles, and by presenting over 500 scientific talks at meetings worldwide. Similarly, service and leadership within the medical associations affiliated with orthopedic sports medicine and arthroscopy has been a consistent emphasis throughout Dr. Field’s career. Dr. Field has been an active member of twelve nationally recognized orthopedic associations. His extensive work within the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) has been a special focus of his efforts. In his years of service to AANA’s 5,800 orthopaedic surgeon members, Dr. Field has contributed to multiple committees and chairmanships and served as AANA’s 2019-2020 president.
A focused dedication to his craft, coupled with an extraordinary drive to disseminate his knowledge through fellowship education, publication, and association leadership has given Mississippi a surgeon, and a sports medicine fellowship training program, with a title worthy of “elite.”
