By Karl C. Roberts, MD

At West Michigan Orthopaedics, we believe that educating and training future physicians is critical to the ongoing success of our profession and the medical community. We take this responsibility seriously. All of our West Michigan Orthopaedics physicians are faculty with Michigan State College of Human Medicine Dept of Surgery and teach in the Spectrum Health – Michigan State orthopaedic surgery residency program.

I am the program director for the residency. Dr. Zietz is the director of the Spectrum Health residency clinic practice. And Dr. Wierks is part of the residency sports medicine and joint reconstruction faculty.

We recognize that teaching improves our quality of care and keeps our skills sharp. As the program director of the Spectrum Health-Michigan State orthopaedic surgery residency program, I appreciate the value of teaching and learning from fellow faculty and our students. Education creates an environment of collegiality and collaboration amongst all of our physicians in Grand Rapids, which is an asset to the quality of medical care in the community and makes practicing orthopedics in Grand Rapids very rewarding.

For more information on the Spectrum Health-Michigan State orthopaedic surgery residency program, please visit: www.spectrumhealth.org