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Rothman Institute names Vaccaro president

Alexander R. Vaccaro has been named president of the Rothman Institute and chairman of orthopedics for Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, the organizations announced Monday.

Alexander R. Vaccaro is the new head of orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson University's Sidney Kimmel Medical College and of the Rothman Institute.
Alexander R. Vaccaro is the new head of orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson University's Sidney Kimmel Medical College and of the Rothman Institute.Read moreTom Gralish/Staff

Alexander R. Vaccaro has been named president of the Rothman Institute and chairman of orthopedics for Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, the organizations announced Monday.

In both positions, Vaccaro, 52, is succeeding Todd J. Albert, who left in June to become surgeon-in-chief and medical director at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Vaccaro was previously vice chairman of Rothman and of orthopedics at Thomas Jefferson.

Rothman, based in Center City and with close ties to Jefferson that Vaccaro says he expects to continue, counts itself among the largest orthopedic groups in the country, with 105 physicians at 20 locations from Pottstown to Cape May Court House.

The group has 42 partners.

Vaccaro, who won the position of Rothman president over two other internal candidates, plans to continue expanding, while maintaining the group's standard that every Rothman doctor is committed to research, education, and clinical excellence

"I don't see why we can't have 230 to 250 orthopedics doctors in the next three to five years," with expansion into central New Jersey, possibly North Jersey, and west into Pennsylvania, Vaccaro said.

Vaccaro, a Gladwyne resident and a spinal surgeon often quoted on the conditions of professional athletes, is building his business acumen by working on a master's degree in business administration at Temple University's Fox School of Business.

"My greatest weakness, as with most physicians, is that we learn the business on the job," said Vaccaro, who said he was in the eighth month of an 18-month M.B.A. program.

As an academic, Vaccaro has published 560 peer-reviewed articles and was the third-most-cited author in Spine Journal from 1990 to 2009, according to the medical journal

The Rothman Institute, which was founded by Richard H. Rothman in 1970, also has a chief executive - Mike West, a numbers expert known for razor-sharp data analysis.

Among Vaccaro's top priorities is to standardize care and to eliminate practices that waste money.

"We need to come to an understanding of common pathways of care that are cost-effective and minimize adverse events, that decrease costs through minimizing readmissions," Vaccaro said.

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