Dr. Kate McCarthy is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in spine surgery, and she wants more girls to be like her, so she's prepared to help them bone up on biology, then drill 'em.
McCarthy -- when she's not at Arkansas Specialty Orthopaedics or being a mom -- is a mentor for the Perry Initiative, a national organization that helps young women interested in engineering and orthopedics. These are fields overwhelmingly populated by men.
The organization holds its annual outreach program for Little Rock area high school students interested in exploring orthopedics or engineering careers Dec. 5 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. It will feature six hands-on "mock surgical" exercises and participants will hear lectures from local female surgeons and engineers.
McCarthy's belief in the importance of "a community of women" helps her prioritize and budget her time and involvement in community service.
"I want young women to see the potential in a field that is greater than 87 percent male-populated," she says. "Only 7 percent of practicing orthopedic surgeons are women."
Women constitute only 12 percent of the academic faculty in orthopedics, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; clinically, women who are practicing orthopedic surgeons make up about 7 percent. Meanwhile, only 11 percent of the faculty at engineering schools are women, and that percentage is lower still for mechanical engineering.
McCarthy says the stereotypical view of an orthopedist is a muscular guy using power tools, hammers and brute force to reset broken bones, and that can be intimidating for young women. All it really takes to make a good orthopedist is an understanding of the physics involved.
McCarthy has previously given lectures and also been a part of the hands-on teaching modules in the program's scoliosis element, dealing with severe curvatures of the spine.
Scoliosis is another focus for her, especially in adolescents -- and another reason why bringing more women into orthopedics is important. "Girls and boys are equally affected by small degrees of scoliosis, but girls are eight times more likely than boys to develop progressive curves," she explains.
Those six "mock-surgical" stations include "cadaver" (human arm and foot) and "sawbones" modules, which is sufficiently macabre to weed out the steely from the unsteady.
There are 50 spots available for students in grade 10 and up, and McCarthy says there are usually more applications than spots. (Program coordinator Manuela Restrepo says the program has already received more than 70 applications.) The amount of available funding is the limiting factor.
McCarthy says when she presents for the program, she uses models of spines rather than actual backbones. "The anatomy of a spine is so difficult even when you've been practicing for three years," she explains. Her presentation also involves a few big yellow DeWalt drills, and not the surgical-grade ones the company makes for operating rooms, but the kind you'd more likely see on a construction site. "I used one in my residency," she says.
McCarthy has also worked with the Scoliosis Research Society, though she was unable to make a presentation at its most recent meeting because her second child was due that week. "Since the onset of my family, research has gone on the back burner," she admits.
Daughter Maureen Claire is now 6 weeks old; her son, James, is 18 months. McCarthy, who at her most professional is Kathryn J. McCarthy, M.D., outside her profession goes by her married name of Mullooly. Dr. Bryan Mullooly is an anesthesiologist at UAMS, where McCarthy is also an adjunct faculty member in the department of orthopedics, giving lectures on trauma and degenerative diseases of the spine and working with orthopedic surgery residents.
McCarthy, 35, is an alumna of Mount St. Mary Academy and was the school's commencement speaker for the class of 2015. She majored in anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and came back to Little Rock to get her doctor of medicine degree from UAMS, where she was president of her class. She did her orthopedic surgery residency at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, followed by a fellowship in orthopedic spine surgery at the Norton Leatherman Spine Center in Louisville, Ky.
An open-heart surgery to replace an aortic valve when she was 17 was a big influence on her decision to go into medicine; the choice of orthopedic surgery follows in the footsteps of her father, Richard McCarthy, an orthopedic surgeon at Arkansas Children's Hospital and UAMS.
She met her husband in Chicago, where they lived for several years, but says she missed seeing familiar faces at the grocery store and the sense of community in her hometown. So, in August 2012, she took a position at the Little Rock orthopedic center.
Though she no longer runs marathons, McCarthy manages to work a fitness regimen into her full schedule. "I made a decision to stop running, and have gone into cross-fit," she says. Post-pregnancy, she has had to tailor her weight-lifting and other routines, admitting she sort of overdid it the other day: "My ego does not go before my back."
The Perry Initiative Outreach Program for Little Rock involves area students in grade 10 and up, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Dec. 5, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W. Markham St., Little Rock. The application deadline was Nov. 5, but more information is available online at perryinitiative.org/event/pop-littlerock-ar.
High Profile on 11/15/2015