Scarborough to head orthopaedics department at UF College of Medicine

New orthopedics head will work to make the UF program a national leader in clinical care and research

Mark T. Scarborough, M.D., has been named chairman of the department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation in the University of Florida College of Medicine. Scarborough, an orthopaedic oncologist, has been on the UF faculty for 20 years. He is also being named as the first holder of the William F. Enneking, William E. Anspach, and Orthopaedic Alumni endowed chair.

“My vision is that we as a department continue to grow and become one of the leading orthopaedics programs in the U.S., both in clinical care and research,” Scarborough said. “We are a very good department, and our goal is to become great.”

Part of that aspiration includes becoming one of the top 10 NIH-funded orthopaedics programs in the U.S. The department — which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010 — currently ranks 19th.

Scarborough said he will work to make the department a regional powerhouse for orthopaedic surgery, and to bolster the institution’s strong tradition as a leader in educating residents and fellows in areas such as spine, hand, shoulder, ankle and foot surgery, general orthopaedics, oncology, pediatrics, trauma and rehabilitation.

Scarborough has mentored more than 100 physicians-in-training over the years, and his own clinical practice focuses heavily on complex limb salvage in the treatment of conditions such as bone cancer.

“It’s very rewarding to help people get back to their lives by treating these severely debilitating diseases,” he said.

“Dr. Scarborough is an outstanding physician, teacher and researcher who has demonstrated his ability to lead with insight and resourcefulness in the quest for new ways to improve the care our patients receive,” said College of Medicine Dean Michael L. Good, the Folke H. Peterson Dean’s Distinguished Professor. “We look forward to even greater accomplishments from the orthopaedics department under his leadership.”

Throughout his career, Scarborough has witnessed significant technological and medical advances in areas such as total joint replacement and the treatment of traumatic and sports medicine injuries. UF orthopaedics department researchers have contributed to many of those developments in areas such as orthopaedic mechanical engineering, implantation, bone banking technology, bone cancer biology, dwarfism and arthritis — and will continue to do so, Scarborough said.

A Gainesville native, Scarborough earned his medical degree at UF in 1985 before going on to complete his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and a fellowship in orthopaedic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. He returned to UF in 1991 to work in the department of orthopaedics and has held several positions over the years, including chief of orthopaedic oncology, director of the department’s residency and orthopaedic oncology fellowship programs and, most recently, interim department chair. He was named the Eugene Jewitt professor of orthopaedic surgery in 2004.

A noted contributor to scholarship in his field, Scarborough has published 14 book chapters and more than 85 scientific papers in journals such as Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, the American Journal of Clinical Oncology and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. He serves as an editorial reviewer for the Cancer Journal and the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, and has given numerous conference presentations and seminars across the U.S. and around the world.

Scarborough was elected to membership in the American Orthopaedic Association and the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. He is also a member of several other professional organizations including the American Academy of Orhtopaedic Surgeons, the American Medical Association and the International Society of Limb Salvage.