Mary Kate Erdman, MD
Orthopaedic Trauma Fellow
Harborview Medical Center
Seattle, WA
Why did you join AAOS?
AAOS is a massive network and there are so many resources to help you throughout residency training.
How do you define success?
To me success is all about the daily grind. The goal is to finish each day both satisfied with the patient care I provided and with more knowledge and skill to do even better the next day.
Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
During residency, my greatest mentors had an incomparable passion for education. Surgeons like Geoffrey Marecek and Milan Stevanovic have been incredible role models, not only by being great teachers but by investing so much in the development of their trainees.
How has the AAOS helped you throughout your career?
Being a member, and especially going to the Annual Meeting opens so many doors and expands your career network.
What advice would you give to new members of the AAOS?
Be curious about everything. Be curious in the clinical sense and learn about your patients. Be curious in the academic realm and read everything you can get your hands on. And be curious about the field as a whole. There is so much variation in practice settings and scopes, and undoubtedly so much innovation coming down the road. Orthopaedic surgery will certainly evolve with the rapid rise of technological advancements and you want to be ahead of that curve.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that not many people know.
My favorite earrings are 2.0mm mini-frag plates.