MD, PhD, FACS
Dr. Della Rocca is currently a tenured professor and vice-chair for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, USA, and serves as the orthopaedic inpatient medical director for University of Missouri Health Care. He attended Cornell University for his undergraduate studies and then Duke University for his medical and graduate studies, graduating from the latter with medical and doctoral degrees.
While at Duke, he performed his graduate studies in the laboratory of the 2012 chemistry Nobel Laureate, Robert J. Lefkowitz. He trained in orthopaedic surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and then received advanced training in orthopaedic traumatology at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He has served as faculty of the Duke University orthopaedic surgery department and has also been a visiting scholar at the Mayo Clinic.
His primary area of focus is treatment of upper and lower extremity and pelvic/acetabular fractures and their sequelae, and he also has a niche interest in complex elbow reconstruction. He was an American-British-Canadian traveling fellow through the American Orthopaedic Association in 2013, has served as faculty and chair for multiple trauma courses through AO Trauma and the Orthopaedic Trauma Association, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
He has published >100 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and holds 58 patents (awarded or pending) for biomedical devices and methods.
Fun fact:
Former soccer player, loves whiskey and wine (not together though) and enjoys killing the residents with 80s music trivia
