Penelope Halkiadakis didn’t realize her passion for orthopedics until her first year in medical school at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

She entered medical school thinking she would specialize in general trauma surgery because of her previous experiences working as an EMT. She first volunteered with the EMS starting her sophomore year of high school and became an EMT her freshman year of college at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Yet, that started to change during an anatomy lab in her first year of medical school. She found the anatomy of the human body to be intriguing.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh I love bones,'” she said with a laugh.

Halkiadakis involved herself with research during her first year, joining a research group that was led by Browns Team Head Physician James Voos, MD, in his sports medicine lab. During that time, they focused their work on understanding recurrent ACL tears in their adolescent patient population. It’s also the first orthopedics group she has published with in her medical career.

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