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Innovation in Motion: Scottish Rite for Children’s Highlights From the 2025 PRiSM Meeting

Innovation in Motion: Scottish Rite for Children’s Highlights From the 2025 PRiSM Meeting

by | Feb 4, 2025 | Events, Research & Innovation

Scottish Rite for Children attended the 12th annual Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine (PRiSM) Society meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Scottish Rite clinicians and researchers displayed the results of 25 projects through various presentations and posters, resulting in a strong presence at the meeting.

Continue reading for highlights of Scottish Rite’s contributions and accomplishments at the 2025 PRiSM meeting:

Staff in the Spotlight

Director of Movement Science Sophia Ulman, Ph.D., led several presentations, involving the groundbreaking work from the Movement Science Lab team. She also served as a board member for PRiSM.

Director of Sports Medicine and orthopedic sports surgeon Philip L. Wilson, M.D., shared promising results from a study, which included outcomes in treating osteochondritis dissecans in the ankle, specifically the talus bone. The technique was adapted from one previously published by the team in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine as a treatment for osteochondritis dissecans in the knee.

Jacob C. Jones, M.D., RMSK, helped lead the pre-conference workshop to introduce attendees to the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound in diagnostics methods for pediatric sports medicine conditions. He also presented several novel investigations from the podium, involving the use of ultrasound to evaluate ankle injuries, as well as elbows, in asymptomatic baseball players and gymnasts.

Learn more about the annual internation Pediatric Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Symposium held at Scottish Rite for Children. Registration for the August 2025 program is open now.

Trainees in the Spotlight

Scottish Rite’s sports medicine team proudly supports young researchers and students in various programs. They mentor the young researchers by helping them prepare presentations for national audiences, such as PRiSM, and publish research, as the lead author or primary investigator.

Medical Student Research Fellow (MSRF)

Rishi Sinha, M.D., is an orthopedic resident at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. As he completed medical school at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, he participated in the one-year Medical Student Research Fellowship at Scottish Rite for Children and collaborated the sports medicine and hip teams. Sinha shared data from the Sports Cohort Outcomes Registry (SCORE), a multicenter registry of pediatric and adolescent arthroscopy cases and complications. His presentation focused on skeletally immature anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions and was nominated as a top ten contender for the Top Scientific Paper Award.

Clinical Orthopedic Research Assistant (CORA)

Each year, Scottish Rite seeks out college students in pursuing a career in medicine. Clinical Orthopedic Research Assistant (CORA) are hired to help Scottish Rite’s experts in collaborating on clinical research tasks and projects. CORA researchers specialize in an area of study and works with the experts in that department, exiting the program with a well-rounded experience to further their education in medical school or other post-graduate programs.

For the past two years, PRiSM has recognized two Scottish Rite for Children CORA researchers with trainee travel grants to present their projects. Trainee travel grants help members pay for the expenses to travel to conferences or other events to present their research. This year, the following CORA researchers gave two exceptional presentations:

  • James McGinley, B.S., a former baseball player and first-year medical student at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, presented findings from an ultrasound study on baseball players and a project on risk factors for osteochondral fractures in first-time patellar dislocations.
  • Cassidy Schultz, B.S., presented a retrospective study on the incidence of rhabdomyolysis in North Texas and an anatomic study of the medial meniscus. She plans to become a physician assistant and will begin her program this summer.

Learn more about the Medical Student Research Fellow (MSRF) and Clinical Orthopedic Research Assistant (CORA) programs. These programs immerse medical students and college graduates in a highly productive academic setting to learn the skills necessary to become a successful musculoskeletal clinician researcher.

 

Awards and Accolades

In addition to the trainee travel grants, PRiSM society award committee members recognized a handful of outstanding projects. Recipients of these and other awards are selected by a small committee during the annual meeting.

Hank Chambers Best Scientific Paper Award

Our team is a significant contributor to data and efforts of the Research on Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee (ROCK) study group. The presentation of this data earned the Hank Chambers Best Scientific Paper Award, named for the founding member of PRiSM, Dr. Hank Chambers.

Kevin Shea Best Scientific Poster Award

Lead biomechanist Ashley Erdman, B.S., M.B.A., was awarded the Kevin Shea Best Scientific Poster for her project scrutinizing the medial knee position in the single-leg squat, a test used to evaluate knee collapse, or valgus, a known position that increases risk of ACL injury. The project is called, “Comparison of Most Medial Knee Position and Knee Abduction During a Single-Leg Squat Task: Are We Seeing the Whole Picture?”.

“Top 10” Poster

The poster titled, “Strength and Spatiotemporal Predictors of Fatigue induced Changes in Hip and Ankle Kinetics in High-School Cross-Country Runners,” was a top ten contender for Best Scientific Poster. In this poster and on the podium, sports medicine physician Shane M. Miller, M.D., and physical therapist Jessica Penshorn, P.T., D.P.T., A.T.C., shared findings from work on young runners in a project that began as an idea at the 2024 PRiSM annual meeting. They have tested young, long-distance runners in Scottish Rite’s Movement Science Lab  in a novel study evaluating movement mechanics and running mechanics across the course of a five-mile run.

Expanding Young Athletes’ Potential Beyond the Court

Expanding Young Athletes’ Potential Beyond the Court

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Events, Sports Medicine

Picture courtesy from the Dallas Mavericks. 

Division Director of the Movement Science Laboratory Sophia Ulman, Ph.D. inspires the next generation of athletes to explore the wide range of opportunities in sports beyond the court.

The Dallas Mavericks organization hosted their annual Mavs Academy Fall Classic in November in Frisco, Texas. The tournament united 80 boys’ and girls’ varsity teams across Texas to compete at various Frisco ISD schools throughout two weekends. Scottish Rite for Children’s athletic trainers handled injuries on the sidelines, ranging from minor abrasions to significant joint injuries, like ACL tears.

While the teams showed off their high-quality skills on the court, Ulman represented Scottish Rite’s sports medicine team in the tournament’s off-court, educational enrichment. In a panel discussion, Ulman expanded young athletes’ perspectives of careers in sports through her own journey. Starting as a competitive basketball player herself, she acknowledged that she was like many young athletes — imagining a career that allowed her to stay connected to sports. Ulman shared how her career path evolved with her internship at Duke University’s Michael W. Krzyzewski Human Performance Laboratory (K-Lab). Since then, Ulman has conducted innovative research on lower extremity injuries,  as well as a variety of risk factors including movement quality, nutrition, sleep and early sport specialization in Scottish Rite’s state-of-the-art Movement Science Laboratory.

“I get to be around young athletes every day, and the work I get to do has the potential to impact thousands more,” Ulman says. “I can’t imagine a better place to be.”

Ulman’s perspective broadens young athletes’ views of sports, specifically through showing how it is possible to contribute to the game through STEM-specific careers. Panelists alongside Ulman included Mechelle Lewis Freeman — USA Track and Field Olympian, Olympic coach, CEO/Founder of TrackGirlz and partner with Ulman in Scottish Rite’s FAST clinics — and Dallas Mavericks legend Rolando Blackman, among others.

“I love talking to the kids because so many of them think that if they don’t go professional, that’s it with sports,” Ulman says. “Being able to share with them that it’s not just being a professional athlete, it’s not just production or being a broadcaster, but there are a lot of STEM-specific jobs as well.”

The Mavs Academy Fall Classic reinforces the relationship between young athletes’ physical performance, well-being and opportunities as they continue to develop. By having a sports medicine expert like Ulman, there is a touch of Scottish Rite’s principles of keeping children active and healthy well into adulthood.

“Over the years in our collaboration with the Mavs Academy, we have had the privilege of educating hundreds of young athletes and have engaged families in our injury prevention research,” says Ulman. “With a solid commitment to our mission of giving children back their childhood, we are dedicated to defining injury prevention standards and using evidence-based information in our care and in our community education so we can truly change the game for young athletes.”

 

 

D Magazine: Scottish Rite and By Way of Dallas’ Custom Prosthetics Collab

D Magazine: Scottish Rite and By Way of Dallas’ Custom Prosthetics Collab

by | Sep 21, 2023 | Events, Press Coverage

Scottish Rite For Children and Hance Taplin’s By Way of Dallas fashion line are coming together to create one-of-a-kind influencer-designed prosthetics for children to flip the perception of those with prostheses.

The orthopedic children’s hospital is teaming up with the in-demand Dallas-based designer to launch the first streetwear collaboration in the history of prosthetics, turning prosthetic limbs into works of art with the help of artists, athletes, and local influencers. Dak Prescott, Dude Perfect, Dwight Powell, Hance Taplin, NIL marketing consultant Jordan Rogers, and many others are collaborators on the project.

“Scottish Rite’s remarkable mission of giving children back their childhood through the very best care goes beyond our medical and technological expertise,” says Robert L. Walker, president and CEO of Scottish Rite for Children. “Scottish Rite for Children is thrilled to collaborate with By Way of Dallas through artwork contributed by advocates to give our patients the ability to celebrate their individuality and keep them active and happy.”

Scottish Rite’s in-house team creates custom prosthetics for patients regardless of their ability to pay, and patients will have the opportunity to customize their prostheses. At an event to celebrate the partnership’s launch, Scottish Rite’s Senior Director of Communications McKay Hendershot described how the idea started with customizing the soles of prosthetic feet and grew to what it is today. “This allows us to change the conversation on inclusivity,” she says.
A man wearing a blue scrub top with louisiana on it 

The collaboration is about bringing together a diverse group of people for the betterment of patients, artists, and providers. By Way of Dallas’ mission is to rebrand Dallas and diversify the community, and Taplin says this project aligned with the brand’s goals. “It’s not easy to do something that transcends the medical campus on a different medium,” says Taplin, By Way of Dallas’s founder and creative lead.

Patients who need prosthetics are usually on the receiving end of complex diagnoses and poor prognoses. Scottish Rite was motivated to improve outcomes for these patients and change the conversation around prostheses. Allowing children to participate in the decision-making process around the processes can benefit social and emotional health. What may have been an anxiety-inducing introduction can become a conversation starter for patients and their peers.

Scottish Rite for Children is a leader in the treatment of pediatric orthopedic conditions that include sports injuries and fractures and also focuses on arthritic, neurological, and learning disorders, such as dyslexia. The hospital currently has three locations in North Texas.

“To inspire the kids who inspire us — that’s our goal,” Taplin says. “Prostheses are beautiful extensions of an individual, and we hope to remind each kid to live boldly and champion movement with a bit of extra style.”

Read the full article.

Dine with Superheroes and Princesses!

Dine with Superheroes and Princesses!

by | Jun 8, 2023 | Events

Crayon Club’s unique, child-friendly event scheduled for Saturday, June 24, 2023, will bring together families for a magical meet-and-greet experience complete with superheroes, princesses, and other characters. The event will include breakfast, an autograph session, silent auction, face-painting and more. All proceeds from the 2023 Character Breakfast will directly benefit the patients of Scottish Rite for Children.

Online registration opens on Tuesday, April 25, and closes at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 23. Walk-ups are welcome, but keep in mind that limited seats are available.

Purchase Tickets

Crayon Club was established to unite young professionals dedicated to improving the lives of children. Together, through volunteerism, education and philanthropy, Crayon Club supports the mission of Scottish Rite for Children.

For more information, please visit our Crayon Club page or view a Facebook photo album.

University of Southern California Football Team Visits Scottish Rite for Children

University of Southern California Football Team Visits Scottish Rite for Children

by | Dec 28, 2022 | Events, Press Coverage

The University of Southern California Trojans took a break from their preparations for the 87th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic to visit patients and their families at Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas.

The visit began with a welcoming from Scottish Rite President and Chief Executive Officer, Robert L. Walker, who briefed the team about the pediatric orthopedic hospital. USC head coach Lincoln Riley then presented honorary captain Keegan Ratliff with a custom USC Trojans jersey.

Full stories below.
USC Football Instagram
Cottonbowl Classic Instagram
USC holds first practice at AT&T Stadium after visit to Scottish Rite, 247 Sports
Trojans Visit Scottish Rite for Children, Cottonbowl.com