Director of Pediatric Orthopaedics at Monroe Carell Jr.
Growing up in Naugatuck, Conn., an industrial area about 15 minutes north of New Haven, the active and healthy Greg Mencio didn’t have much experience with physicians outside of routine physicals. However, the young athlete and good student soon became drawn to orthopaedics, which combined his love of sports, wish to help people and desire for a challenging career.
After high school, Mencio accepted an offer to play four years of baseball and football for the Duke University Blue Devils. “When I went to Duke, I had exposure to a very charismatic man, the team doctor for Duke athletics. That sort of solidified my decision to do medicine,” Mencio recalled of his great mentor and role model Frank Bassett, MD.
After undergrad, Mencio stayed at Duke for medical school. Interestingly, what proved to be such a strong draw to orthopaedics didn’t wind up being his field of choice within the specialty. “I had played sports all these years. I saw the inside of the locker room … and I was not sure I wanted to care for athletes,” he said.
Instead, a rotation at the Shriner’s Hospital in Greenville, N.C. led him in another direction. There, he met another former Duke football player and his second role model, pediatric orthopaedist Bob Fitch, MD.
“In the end,” noted Mencio, part of it is your gut … you like what you do. I liked the kids; I liked the diagnostic challenges; I liked the surgery; I liked impacting someone over their lifetime.”
In addition to loving the field he chose, Mencio said the icing on the cake is the people with whom he works … both kids and colleagues. “The people that I’ve met and become friends with in pediatrics are all good people. It’s been a bonus as I’ve gotten further and further in my career. Colleagues around the country are really good guys.”
Before moving to Vanderbilt as an assistant professor, Mencio completed his internship and residency at Duke, a surgical residency at the University of Pittsburgh, and a fellowship at Newington Children’s Hospital (now called Connecticut Children’s Medical Center). After finishing his fellowship in 1988, Mencio noted, “I was on staff at Newington until June of 1991, and I started at Vanderbilt in July of ‘91.”
Today, the board-certified orthopaedic surgeon is a professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and vice chair of the Department of Orthopaedics for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, director of Pediatric Orthopaedics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, and director of the Spina Bifida Clinic. His specialties include pediatric trauma, spinal trauma, musculoskeletal aspects of neuromuscular disorders, gait analysis and scoliosis and spinal deformities.
“My main area of interest is spinal deformity and pediatric trauma,” he said. Mencio added that whereas adult orthopaedic specialists are generally procedure specific, it’s different for peds. “Our specialty is defined by age. We do a little bit of everything.” However, he added, “We’re starting to see our specialty sub-specialize more.”
Certainly Mencio is in position to view the latest trends. Currently, he is president of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA).
“Our big focus in the Pediatric Society is quality, safety and value,” he said. Mencio noted that in addition to those major initiatives, continuing education is a critical component of the society’s work. “And research,” he continued. “We can’t do any of this without research. Last year we funded $430,000 (in research). We hope to do that again this year.”
Mencio took office with POSNA in May 2014 for a one-year term, which means he’ll have a few months of overlap with his other presidential duties. As president-elect of the Tennessee Orthopaedic Society (see box), he will take the helm of the statewide organization at the conclusion of next month’s annual conference and preside over his first board meeting at the beginning of 2015. Mencio noted the work of TOS is more advocacy based. “We try to stay in tune with what our members’ needs are and what it takes to practice good, patient-centered care.”
Although Connecticut and North Carolina claimed his childhood and early career, it’s Nashville that the Mencios now consider home. “Our kids grew up here. We came when the girls were three and five,” he said of relocating to Music City. “It’s been fun to see the city grow, and we love it here,” he added.
Mencio might have been the first doctor in his family, but he isn’t the last. He and wife Madelyn, a nurse educator at Saint Thomas Health, are the proud parents of two grown daughters. Alyson, a certified financial planner, is with Wiley Bros.-Aintree Capital in Nashville. Marissa has just started her general surgery internship at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga at Erlanger. The family is also looking forward to Alyson’s wedding later this year.
Between his commitments to patients, Vanderbilt, TOS, POSNA and family, Mencio knows the coming year will be hectic, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. “My wife says the only person I can say ‘no’ to is her,” he said with a laugh.
Despite the long days, Mencio said it’s well worth it. “It does take a little bit of time, but I think it’s rewarding. I think if you have an opportunity, it’s good to be involved,” he concluded.
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