Khaled J Saleh

Biography

Saleh was born on Sept 24th, 1964, in Kuwait to Fathiya and Jamal Saleh. The Egyptian derivation of his surname comes from his paternal great-great-great-great-grandfather, who emigrated from Egypt. The family eventually settled in Kuwait after being evacuated in 1948 from their town Salameh, located just outside Tel Aviv, Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In 1966 Saleh emigrated with a number of family members to Canada, where the family eventually settled in Belleville, Ontario where Saleh completed his middle and high school education. Saleh went on to attend the University of Western Ontario on an academic scholarship. During that time he met his wife Lena, whom he married in 1984. The couple resides in Springfield, Illinois and has three children.

Career, education and training

After completing his medical training at the University of Western Ontario, Saleh completed his postgraduate training in orthopaedic surgery at University of Toronto followed by a fellowship in geriatric orthopaedics at University of Toronto at Mt. Sinai Hospital. In 1998, he became a clinical instructor at Weill Cornell Medical College Hospital for Special Surgery and went on to join the faculty in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Minnesota. In 2004, Saleh became the Division Chief of Adult Reconstruction in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Virginia. He is currently the Chairman of the Division of Orthopaedics, in the Department of Surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and completed a master's degree in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health Executive Program.

Professional activities, memberships and distinctions

In addition to serving as the Chairman of Orthopaedics at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Saleh serves as the institution's Director of Clinical and Translational Research. He is board certified in orthopaedic surgery by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and sits on committees in academic orthopaedic societies such as the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Association, among others. In addition, Saleh is a member of medical societies, including: the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Orthopaedic Association, International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery, and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine, and the American College of Surgeons.

In addition to publishing over 200 peer-reviewed abstracts and manuscripts, he travels the national and international academic circuit to lecture on various topics relating to adult reconstruction. In 2005, Saleh released the Lower-Extremity Activity Scale (LEAS) in order to quantitatively measure changes in daily physical activity that occur before and after lower-limb arthroplasty. Quantitatively measuring patients' daily activity before and after surgery with Saleh's LEAS not only allows orthopaedic surgeons to more accurately manage and treat orthopaedic conditions, but also allows a more accurate analysis and prediction of surgical outcomes.

In addition to revolutionizing orthopaedic patient care through academic research, Saleh's medical device innovations have also made an impact in the field of arthroplasty. Working with orthopaedic colleagues, Saleh developed the VEGA knee which was debuted by Aesculap (a B. Braun Melsungen company)in 2012. In addition to its posterior-stabilized kinematics, the VEGA knee features a 7-layer AS coating to minimize wear and low-profile box to preserve more of the patient's native bone. The VEGA's variety of different implant sizes allow each patient to receive a customized fit, and its dual-purpose instruments and simple design decrease surgery time, thereby lowering the risk of infection.

Selected publications (selected from over 200 publications)