In memory of Freddie Fu, AOJ’s Honorary Editor-in-Chief and renowned Pitt surgeon
On September 24, 2021, our Honorary Editor-in-Chief Dr. Freddie Fu (Figure 1), passed away in Pittsburgh, surrounded by his loving family. He was 70.
“Sad, just sad and shocked. He is a superstar, and so will be to me forever.”, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Joint (AOJ), Dr. Shiro Ikegawa expressed his thoughts when the sad news hit the wires.
“Dr. Fu will always live in our mind.”, said by the Co-Editor-in-Chief of AOJ, Dr. Qing Jiang, after hearing the bad news of death of Dr. Fu.
“Dr. Fu is a great teacher, inspire me in my career. I will remember his words ‘patient first, keeping passion and curious.’”, said Dr. Dongquan Shi, the Executive Editor-in-Chief of AOJ and also a student of Dr. Fu.
At the time of his death, Dr. Fu was the Chairman and Professor of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and head team physician of the Department of Athletics at the University of Pittsburgh. As the founder of the UPMC’s sports medicine program, he led it to become one of the largest, most comprehensive clinical and research programs of its kind in the world. The medical building at the complex was renamed the UPMC Freddie Fu Sports Medicine Center in 2018 (1).
In March 2016, AME Publishing Company and Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University co-launched the journal Annals of Joint (AOJ, Ann Joint, Online ISSN: 2415-6809), aiming to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the rapid publication of original articles, editorials, technical notes, case reports and reviews on clinical, translational and basic aspects of bone and joint. Dr. Fu served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of AOJ from March 2016 to August 2019 and served as the Honorary Editor-in-Chief of AOJ from September 2019 to September 2021. With the kindest support and leadership from Dr. Fu, AOJ has been running very smoothly in the past five years and indexed by ESCI and Scopus successively.
As far as we know, Dr. Fu’s major research interest lies in anatomic ACL reconstruction, clinical outcomes, and bioengineering of sports-related problems. In 2017, Dr. Fu edited the first special series for AOJ focusing on trends in ACL reconstruction (https://aoj.amegroups.com/post/view/trends-in-acl-reconstruction). Since its official publication, it has attracted lots of attention from the numerous experts worldwide with more than 71,000 views (Table 1).
Table 1
| Article | Views |
|---|---|
| The importance of individualized, anatomic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction—for Annals of Joint Special ACL Edition | 2,996 |
| Role of the anterolateral complex in rotatory instability of the anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee | 5,580 |
| Microstructural properties of the anterior cruciate ligament | 4,186 |
| Identification and treatment of RAMP lesions in anterior cruciate ligament-injured knees | 3,934 |
| Bony morphologic factors affecting injury risk, rotatory stability, outcomes, and re-tear rate after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction | 11,132 |
| Anatomical femoral tunnel creation: outside-in versus anteromedial portal | 3,312 |
| Management of bone deficiency in revision anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction | 7,305 |
| Hip and trunk muscle dysfunction: implications for anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention | 5,881 |
| Functional assessments for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction return to sport | 11,726 |
| Which patient reported outcomes to collect after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction | 12,746 |
| Allograft augmentation of hamstring autografts was not a cost-effective treatment option for middle aged patients undergoing primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction | 2,647 |
Data were collected from
“So many of Pitt’s greatest athletes were blessed to have been treated and cared for by Dr. Fu. Not only was he a gifted doctor, but also someone who was personally invested in every person and patient he worked with.” Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi said (2). In 2018, with Dr. Fu’s help, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of Dr. Fu’s patients, became the cover character of AOJ (Figure 2).
“High Efficiency” is the most intuitive evaluation of AOJ editors to Dr. Fu. “Whenever contacting him, although there is a 12-hour time difference, the editorial office will always receive his reply in a few minutes.”
As mentioned in a previously published interview with Dr. Fu in AOJ (3), Dr. Fu expected AOJ to develop slowly. “Having the high-quality articles and professional editorial board maintained, step by step it can obtain more subscriptions and readership. Success is just around the corner.” said Dr. Fu. We are all encouraged by Dr. Fu’s words. All AOJ editorial staffs, editorial board members, authors, reviewers and guest editors will be always together with him in the road of making AOJ become a top-tier platform for researchers and physicians in the field of bone and joint around the world.
All the way, our hero orthopaedic surgeon.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- Yan CM, Xu EX. Prof. Freddie H. Fu: the man who leads the UPMC sport medicine to the world. Ann Joint 2018;3:102. [Crossref]
- Napsha J. Dr. Freddie Fu, renowned Pitt surgeon, dies. Available online: https://triblive.com/local/regional/dr-freddie-fu-renowned-pitt-surgeon-dies/
- Li B, Zhou S. Professor Freddie H. Fu: admit that you make mistakes—learning never stops! Ann Joint 2017;2:43. [Crossref]
Cite this article as: Editorial Office. In memory of Freddie Fu, AOJ’s Honorary Editor-in-Chief and renowned Pitt surgeon. Ann Joint 2021;6:47.
