Featured Alumni

Fall 2009: Jonathan Schaffer '01 (EMP-48)

Jonathan L. Schaffer, M.D., M.B.A., is managing director of eCleveland Clinic from The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland,Ohio. Board-certified in orthopaedic surgery, Dr. Schaffer is also a staff member in the Center for Joint Replacement in the Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Institute and leads the Advanced Operative Technology Group in the Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Research Center at The Cleveland Clinic. His clinical interests include the treatment of arthritic knees and the integration of technology in the orthopaedic operating room. He leads the Orthopaedic Operating Room of the Future project at Cleveland Clinic and has been on Cleveland Clinic’s Commercialization Council for over six years.

Prior to his appointment at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Schaffer was Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He was instrumental in the development of the OrthoRegistry application, based on NeXTSTEP, which was sold to a major orthopaedic company. Dr. Schaffer was then the Associate Director of the Decision Systems Group, a medical informatics laboratory and President and subsequently Chief Executive Officer of Harmonie Group, Inc., a software company spun off from the laboratory with external venture and corporate funding. He has served on medical industry and venture capital advisory boards including Alza, AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Biorita, Zin Medical and iBalance Medical and is a founder of Tracuro Pharmaceutical Systems.

A frequent lecturer at regional, national and international information technology and medical meetings, Dr. Schaffer has authored more than 100 articles, book chapters and textbooks. In addition, he has developed a number of multimedia programs and computer software applications on patient outcomes and patient education. He has received several awards for medical Web site development.

Dr. Schaffer is an active member of many professional societies including the American College of Physician Executives, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the American Medical Informatics Association. He also is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a member of the American Orthopaedic Association and was named to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

Dr. Schaffer is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. He completed his internship and residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Affiliated Hospitals in Philadelphia. He completed a fellowship in adult reconstruction at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and a research fellowship at Children's Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schaffer also holds a Master's in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

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