Who is Dr. D?

Anthony (Tony) DiGioia, M.D., or Dr. D, is an engineer by training, entrepreneur, and practicing orthopaedic surgeon who grew up in Pittsburgh. He is the Founder and Medical Director of both the Bone and Joint Center at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and the UPMC Innovation Center. Dr. D is also the Founder of the not-for-profit AMD3 Foundation, which leads the Operation Walk Pittsburgh medical mission effort.

More recently, he has coordinated the development of the first of its kind Center for Bone and Joint Health, an innovative initiative that flips the script of routine healthcare visits by putting patients in the driver’s seat. In this relationship-based program, patients actively take charge of their bone and joint health by teaming up with providers to engage in their own care, obtain a timely and correct diagnosis, pursue non-operative treatment options, and personalize a plan based on their needs and priorities.

Dr. D’s Studies

Tony graduated with university honors from Carnegie Mellon University’s Civil Engineering program, obtained a graduate degree in Civil and Biomedical Engineering, and then attended Harvard Medical School where he graduated with Honors in a Special Field. He completed his orthopaedic residency in Pittsburgh and a Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. D is board-certified in orthopaedic surgery and a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons. He is a Faculty Member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Robotics Institute at CMU.

What Brought Dr. D Here?

Tony is recognized as a pioneer and world leader in the early development of medical robotics and computer-assisted surgery. In the early 1990’s, he co-founded the first-ever Center for Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery within the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. On the clinical side, Dr. D founded the Bone and Joint Center (BJC) at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in 2006 as a “hospital within a hospital,” specializing in the treatment of patients with hip and knee arthritis and joint replacement surgery. 

From Technology to Patient Experience

Pivoting from technology innovation, Dr. D went on to care delivery transformation. He developed the Patient Centered Value System (PCVS), a comprehensive personalized approach that combines process and performance improvement with supporting technologies to improve clinical outcomes and patients’ care experiences while reducing costs. Based on the experience-based design sciences, PCVS provides a simple, replicable, and sustainable approach for viewing all care through the eyes of patients and families, identifying opportunities to improve value, and building the necessary implementation teams to co-design change with patients and families as partners in the process.   

In 2018, Dr. DiGioia published The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare Through Co-Design. The book focused on asking patients “what matters to you?” to guide personalized and patient centered care that ultimately supports identifying and reducing health disparities. This approach has been implemented in over 65 different clinical conditions and is increasingly being adopted nationally and internationally.

These combined experiences and the consistent themes of co-design and team building led to the development of the Center for Bone and Joint Health, as research indicates current clinical approaches are insufficient to improve overall bone and joint health as well as reduce the disparities in care.

What matters to patients is a person-centered, multi-disciplinary approach across medical disciplines: pain management including non-traditional, complementary tools, nutrition, weight management and exercise, and education on preventive care. The Center for Bone and Joint Health, with the patient and their needs as the focus, will provide a personalized treatment plan to deliver the right care to the patient at the right time to help everyone live active and healthy lives to their fullest. 

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