Operation Walk Pittsburgh: How We Began

How did Operation Walk Pittsburgh become one of 15+ Operation Walk chapters around the world? 

The story begins more than two decades ago, on other side of the globe.

During a teaching trip to Russia during the mid-90’s, orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Lawrence Dorr had an idea. 

He realized that demonstrating surgery rather than describing it is a better way to teach techniques to physicians. With the goal to bring surgical skills and healing processes to the world’s poor, Dr. Dorr founded Operation Walk in 1996. 

While traveling and speaking at different conferences, Dr. Dorr always discussed Operation Walk, and it eventually piqued the curiosity of Dr. Tony DiGioia.

Through conversations with Dr. Dorr, Dr. DiGioia realized that creating an Operation Walk chapter would be a perfect opportunity to not only assist patients in need, but also see the Patient Centered Value System applied internationally.

“Operation Walk in some ways a program indicative of building better clinical programs elsewhere,” Dr. DiGioia said. “We try to export and scale what we do here to other places with a high need, like in Central America.”

In 2009 Operation Walk Pittsburgh was officially born. Ten years and ten missions later, Operation Walk Pittsburgh is no longer a newcomer, but continues to view each year with fresh eyes and hopes for doing even better than the year before.