When Michelle Lawson, MD, was applying for orthopaedic trauma surgery fellowships, it was important to her to find a fellowship where she could gain independence and not be the only fellow. Lawson found both at Indiana University School of Medicine's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in Indianapolis.
“I didn’t want to go to a place where the attending was always scrubbed in and always there, where you never got to get that independence,” Lawson said. “I think what’s been really good about this fellowship is the graduated autonomy — with appropriate supervision. I think a lot of programs talk about having graduated autonomy, but I think this place has been really true to that.”
Lawson looks forward to when she and her co-fellow, Tim P. Murphy, MD, can share surgical responsibilities.
“We sometimes do what we call ‘Fellow Fridays,’ where we do a trauma room together,” Lawson said. “We’ll choose who’s the lead surgeon and then the other person is the assistant.”Lawson said her mentor, Luke A. Lopas, MD, orthopaedic trauma surgeon and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at IU School of Medicine, is very good about knowing how much autonomy to give to fellows.
The Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship program at IU School of Medicine is a high volume program: fellows perform more than 650 cases annually at Indiana’s most experienced Level I Trauma Center, IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, offering the highest level of care to severely injured patients.
Versatility counts
Lawson said she always felt very supported, but also challenged to push herself. Over the course of her fellowship she has learned how to approach surgery for acetabulum fractures, a break in the socket portion of the hip joint, two different ways.
“Over Christmas, I did five acetabulum fractures in six days,” Lawson explained. “They were similar fractures, but with five different attendings, and so three of them do it in the lateral position, and two do it in the prone position. Their setup is a little bit different, their dissection is a little bit different…So, even though their approach was different, they all got to the same place of fixing the fracture…What’s cool is now that I feel comfortable doing acetabulum surgery prone and lateral, so it kind of depends on the patient aspects, the exact fracture, what other injuries, so instead of being someone who only does it prone or only does it lateral, I feel like I can do either one.”
Lawson said she is grateful to all the attendings she has worked with during fellowship and has learned something from each of them.
“Luke Lopas — he calls himself my life mentor,” Lawson said, smiling. “What I like about him is he has a really thoughtful approach to surgery, the way he thinks about a fracture and the patients and the other injuries, comes up with a plan and also has plan A, B and C.”
His approach has helped Lawson consider upcoming challenges during a procedure and how to address them, and has enhanced her decision making process.
“How he makes decisions and how he talks to patients and their families before and after trauma surgery is really impressive,” Lawson added. “You’re making 100 decisions during a surgical case, everything from positioning to where the incisions are, what length of screws, what size nail, and then making it perfect as it can be,” she said. “The hardest part is the decisions, not necessarily the physical act of putting something back together.”
Lopas said he has seen Lawson’s confidence grow during her fellowship and appreciates her passion and interest in teaching others.
“Michelle has a great passion and infectious enthusiasm for orthopaedic trauma,” Lopas said. “She brings a joy to work that can make sometimes long and challenging days more enjoyable.”
Lopas said Lawson is open to new ideas and treatment plans and avoids rigid dogma.
“Over the course of her fellowship her confidence has grown tremendously,” Lopas said. “Early on, she might know the right next step, but not feel comfortable executing it without confirmation, but now is confident and comfortable in her decision making in the operating room.”
He is also excited to see her interest in teaching — and landing a faculty job.
“Michelle is committed to education and mentoring and has been a great resource for our residents and medical students on service,” Lopas said. “I have no doubt that Michelle will be a proud graduate of our program and someone who reflects well upon the ortho trauma fellowship at IU.”
Love for teaching began after college
Lawson’s love for teaching began after she graduated with a neuroscience degree from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, where she ran cross country and track.
“I thought I was going to go straight to medical school from college, but took a little bit of a detour and I was a high school chemistry teacher at a boarding school in western Massachusetts.”
She also served as a dorm parent and a track and cross country coach for three years before attending medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
“A big reason I wanted to go into academics was to teach residents,” Lawson said. “When I made the choice to go to medical school from teaching, I knew I wanted to make teaching part of my career, because I really love teaching. I just wanted to do medicine!”
Once her orthopaedic surgery fellowship wraps up in August, Lawson will head to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Level I Trauma Center in Iowa City, Iowa. She will begin her new role as assistant professor at the Carver College of Medicine's Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation.
While she's excited for her next step, Lawson has enjoyed living in Indianapolis.
“I never lived in the Midwest before this,” Lawson said. “It’s really an easy city to live in. There’s everything you’d want in a city — sports teams, a lot of events and like fun things to do in the area. It’s been nice!”
She's also become a fan of the Indiana Pacers while cheering them on in the NBA finals this year.
“I am very anti-Oklahoma City, because I was a Seattle SuperSonics fan,” the Seattle native said, pointing to her SuperSonics surgical cap, explaining Oklahoma "stole" the SuperSonics when they relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.
Lawson said she is eager to embrace the shift to academic medicine to take on more responsibility and teach residents the surgical and adaptability skills that are essential for success in a new hospital setting.
“Residency to fellowship is a change, but it’s the same progression,” Lawson said. “There’s an adjustment period where you learn who the people are, where everything is and what clinical staff call certain things. I’m eager about the transition from fellow to faculty person, taking on new professional goals, and rightfully anxious as I set out in my surgical career.”
During her fellowship, she attended national and international conferences and traveled with her co-fellow to the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, as well as an orthopaedic surgery fellows learning experience in Davos, Switzerland in December 2024.
In Switzerland, Lawson and her co-fellow participated in a case-based discussion course attended by fellows internationally. “We went there, talked about cases and learned,” Lawson said. “It is very scenic, and it was very IU, because Tim [Murphy, her co-fellow] and I both went, as well as one of last year’s fellows, Dr. Malynda Wynn and one of our attending physicians, Dr. Dillon O’Neill.”
Trauma research project continues
Lawson has kept busy with an ongoing research project she began as a pilot study when she started her residency at Oregon Health & Science University. The research team received funding from the Orthopaedic Trauma Association to study orthopaedic traumatologists' sleeping patterns, gathered by wrist bands worn while they sleep. Lawson and the team plan to recruit orthopaedic trauma surgeons from across the United States to participate in an expanded national study examining the impact of taking home calls.
Orthopaedic trauma surgeons are often called overnight, Lawson explained, resulting in interrupted sleep.
“We’re looking at the effects of sleep based on age and gender among orthopaedic surgeons, and then we’re looking at burnout and well-being metrics, to see if there’s a correlation there as well,” Lawson said.
“Michelle has definitely excelled in research,” said Roman Natoli, MD, PhD, program director of the Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship and associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at IU School of Medicine. “She wrote two grants, and they were both funded to a tune of about $30K total.”
These grants fund research examining gait dysfunction in patients whose bones have not healed compared to patients whose bones have healed, with the objective of helping people earlier in their healing process by seeing how people walk and measuring their progress.
“The thing about Michelle is she’s very passionate about everything that she does and she’s all in for all these things,” Natoli said. “You can also see clearly that the residents like working with her.”
