A POSTER OF A GIANT X-RAY hangs in the hall outside the waiting room at Boston Hand to Shoul­der, a small and prestigious orthopedic surgery practice in Newton, Mass. It shows the delicate architecture of a hand—carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges—with chunky New England Patriots, Bos­ton Bruins, and Boston Red Sox championship rings stacked on the fingers. “We had a hand in six world championships,” the text at the bottom reads.

The hallway, lined with framed jerseys from the same teams, leads to David Ruchelsman’s office. Each jersey bears an autograph and a personal message of thanks to “Dr. R” or one his partners in the practice.

Ruchelsman (’00), the chief of hand and upper extremity surgery at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, performs more than 700 surgeries a year on ev­eryone from infants to grandparents. He’s built his reputation fixing the hands of elite athletes whose livelihoods depend on hitting 100-mile-per-hour fastballs and catching footballs with their fingertips.

His patients have included college hockey stars, an Olympic sailor, and a concert violinist. He’s been a hand and wrist consultant for the New England Patriots.

“I have the opportunity to meet some of the most successful people, but at their most vulnerable times,” he says. “To guide them through that, not just physically with their surgery, but emotionally—I feel blessed to be able to do it.”

FINDING HIS FOCUS

Ruchelsman expected to follow a premed track at BU’s College of Arts & Sciences until he discovered the premed opportunities at Sargent. “I wanted to do something in the realm of sports,” he says. “I didn’t know if that was going to be athletic training or physical therapy or exercise science, but all of those career options were under a single roof at Sargent.”

He appreciated that Sargent’s courses—designed for students studying occupational and physical ther­apy—focused on the upper and lower limbs. In his gross anatomy class, Ruchelsman was drawn to the intricacies of the hand. “It’s really its own organ,” he says. “It allows us to interact with our environment. Without your hands, life is very different.”

He learned that lesson during his first semester of med school at New York University. After breaking a thumb playing basketball, he took his first exams in a cast. The experience helped him focus on orthopedic surgery with a specialization in the upper extremity.

Ruchelsman’s work with elite athletes led to one of the most important innovations of his career. Metacarpal fractures, common injuries for a hand surgeon to see, have traditionally been treated with the insertion of a metal plate or a series of temporary wires. Both demand lengthy recoveries. Looking for a way to get athletes back into action sooner, Ruchelsman began using headless screws, inserting them through small incisions that require just a couple of stitches to close. “Patients can start motion two to three days later,” he says. He published a paper on the procedure in 2014 in The Journal of Hand Surgery. Ruchelsman has also pioneered the use of ultrasound-guided cortisone, which allows for more accurate treatments, and has developed a specialty in complex nerve and tendon transfers.

GIVING BACK

Ruchelsman chose to join a small practice because he’s able to stay involved in research and education. With the support of some of his patients, he estab- lished the nonprofit Hand Surgery Research and Education Foundation and he teaches at the Tufts University School of Medicine. He’s also stayed con- nected to BU. Ruchelsman was a founding member of the Sargent Clinical Advisory Board and serves on the Sargent Dean’s Advisory Board.

Ruchelsman hopes his clinical and educational expertise can help Sargent students.

“I’m happy to hear that human physiology has blossomed at Sargent,” says Ruchelsman, who had about 30 students in his undergraduate class; approxi- mately 130 graduated in the Class of 2025.

“What a magical program, if you’re interested in a career in clinical medicine. Human physiology for four years then medical school is a wonderful model.”

STORY BY MARC CHALUFOUR