AALOS Presidential Welcome

Greetings, and welcome to the new and improved American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons (AALOS) website.  I am Ronald Navarro, MD, and I have served as AALOS President since April 2024.  I am grateful for the AALOS Board’s belief in me, and I am truly energized for the moment in time we are in. 

There are record numbers of orthopaedic residents of Latine descent, and the interest in orthopaedic surgery by Latine medical students is surging. In part this is due to the support of AALOS and its programming.  I am deeply committed, as is our Board and non-physician executive team, to seizing this incredible growth moment we are in. While working to recruit more Attending members as well as all potential resident members, we are asking our attending members to re-commit to an overarching AALOS goal of enhancing the musculoskeletal needs of the Latine community and to be a force in improving culturally competent care for this population in our collective communities. 

We have been working hard in the last 6 months to make our external facing visibility more prominent, build on our medical student programs and create programs for orthopaedic residents as well. We have raised significant funds recently for both operational improvements and to develop a strategic plan that will enable us to forge ahead in the next years in a cohesive and deeply professional way, so that we can deliver for our next generations of Latine patients and physicians.

We are also deeply committed to enhancing the value proposition of membership. Special thanks to the collective Board and our Staff as well as a number of committed medical students (you know who you are!), all of whom have been so supportive of our re-imagining of the future of AALOS. Let’s continue this vital growth - “Todos Juntos” or all together!

Ronald A. Navarro, MD