Leon S Benson, MD
Glenview, IL

Leon S. Benson, M.D. began his medical career in Evanston, Illinois, the town where he was born and raised. After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, Dr. Benson continued as a chemistry major at Northwestern University. He enjoyed the basic sciences and finished Northwestern in three years as a Phi Beta Kappa in chemistry. Medicine still appealed to him as a practical application of a basic sciences background, and in 1981, Dr. Benson began medical school at Northwestern University. He next completed a five year residency in orthopaedic surgery at Northwestern and then pursued an extra year of specialty training in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery at Harvard University. Dr. Benson returned from Boston in 1991 and has practiced with the same orthopaedic group ever since. Evanston Hospital is part of the Northwestern University Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program, and his appointment as Senior Attending at the hospital includes a medical school faculty position with resident education responsibilities. In 1995 he won the James K. Stack Award, given to the Northwestern orthopaedic surgeon voted “best teacher of the year.” Dr. Benson is currently chief of hand surgery at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) and also serves as an officer of the Professional Staff at ENH. He is a major contributor to Northwestern University’s formal orthopaedic curriculum, and has given more than 165 hand surgery lectures as an orthopaedic educator. He also serves as course director for a weekly hand surgery teaching conference within the Northwestern orthopaedic program.

Dr. Benson has been active in clinical research relating to hand surgery. His scholarly production includes more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, a single-authored text on teaching orthopaedics, eight book chapters, and more than 40 scientific presentations to national audiences. Dr. Benson also serves as a consultant reviewer for the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and writes a regular column for a national hand surgery newsletter. He currently holds the rank of associate professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Benson holds several roles within local and national professional societies. From 2004 to 2006 he served as president of the Chicago Society for Surgery of the Hand and continues to serve on the Coding and Reimbursement Committee for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. He is a member of the 2006 Class of the Leadership Fellows Program of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). Dr. Benson’s present committee work includes serving with the Public Relations Oversight Group of the AAOS.

He lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and two daughters. His hobbies include bicycling, photography, and agility training with Chelsea, the family’s Portuguese Water Dog.

Areas of specialty

Coding reimbursement

• Coding reimbursement

Diseases

• Arthritis
• Osteoarthritis

Health policy

• Insurance - professional liability

Injury prevention

• Lawn mower safety and injuries
• Snow shoveling and snow blower injuries

Medical educator

• Medical educator

Microvascular surgery

• Microvascular surgery

Miscellaneous

• Making a surgical decision
• New technology

Orthopaedic education

• Orthopaedic education

Patient centered care

• Patient centered care

Patient safety

• Patient safety

Pediatric

• Elbow fracture
• Growth plate fractures

Shoulder – elbow - upper extremeties

• Baseball finger
• Biceps tendinitis
• Boutonniere deformity
• Broken collarbone
• Carpal scaphoid fractures
• Carpal tunnel
• Colles fracture
• Dislocated elbow
• Dislocated shoulder
• Dupuytren’s contracture
• Elbow bursitis
• Fingertip injuries
• Fracture of the scapula
• Frozen shoulder
• Ganglions of the wrist
• Hand
• Olecranon fracture
• Radial head fractures
• Rotator cuff
• Rupture of biceps tendon
• Shoulder impingement (bursitis, tendonitis)
• Sprained thumb
• Thoracic outlet syndrome
• Trigger finger

Sports: injury prevention

• All-terrain vehicles
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Biking/mountain biking
• Boxing
• Cheerleading
• Cross training
• Cycling
• Dancing
• Diving
• Field hockey
• Figure skating
• Football
• Go-carts
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Handball
• Helmet use
• Hockey
• Horseback riding/equestrian
• In-line skating
• Mini-bikes/trail bikes
• Mopeds or power-assisted cycles
• Mountain climbing
• Pitching
• Playgrounds
• Rowing
• Running
• Scooters/skateboards - powered
• Scooters/skateboards - unpowered
• Shin splints
• Skiing
• Sledding
• Slides
• Snowboarding
• Snowmobiles
• Soccer
• Starting an exercise program
• Steroids
• Strength training
• Surfing
• Swimming
• Tennis
• Track and field
• Trampoline safety
• Volleyball
• Water skiing
• Weight lifting
• Wrestling

Total joint replacement

• Elbow
• Wrist

Trauma

• Amputation
• Reimplanting severed body parts

Workplace injuries

• Back
• Neck
• Tendonitis

Wrong site surgery

• Wrong site surgery

If you would like to set up an interview with Leon S Benson, MD, please contact us.

Kristina Findlay Manager, Media Relations 847-384-4034 findlay@aaos.org

Lauren Pearson Media Relations Specialist 847-384-4031 lpearson@aaos.org

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