Dr. Mary O’Connor, MD, Chair of the Movement is Life Board of Directors, and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Vori Health discusses Movement is Life, a philanthropic, multi-disciplinary coalition that seeks to eliminate racial, ethnic and gender disparities in joint health by helping address barriers to equitable care and promoting physical mobility. She talks about Movement is Life’s mission and vision, and what they seek to accomplish with their newly accomplished non-profit standing. To further support Movement is Life’s continued growth, Zimmer Biomet has made a multi-million, multi-year commitment to growing national and community-based programs focused on early intervention, education, behavior change, and patient advocacy to empower patients with joint pain to be proactive in their care journey.

The research of Mary I. O’Connor, M.D., focuses on joint replacement surgery of the hip and knee, as well as limb salvage surgery for bone and soft tissue tumors.

Dr. O’Connor is a co-investigator in a new pilot study to determine if injecting a patient’s stem cells into his or her arthritic knee joint will slow the progression of, or even reverse, the osteoarthritis.

She is also particularly interested in the influence of gender on treatment and outcomes in arthritis — women have a higher disease burden and oftentimes less optimal outcomes — and research into improving the process of care delivery as a means of improving quality and decreasing costs.

Dr. O’Connor is leading a study into potential differences in knee tissues between men and women with knee arthritis in an effort to better understand why women develop more knee arthritis than men. Also being investigated is whether women ask more and different questions related to knee surgery.

In addition, Dr. O’Connor has been engaged in research with computer-assisted navigation for knee replacement surgery and has also continued research on bone and soft tissue tumors.

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