Written by: Alex Dickett
Who would you see when the television camera pans to the bench at a University of Wisconsin-Madison men’s basketball game? To answer, you would first see head coach Greg Gard, the starting players, the reserves, and the athletic trainer. Not surprisingly, they are all men. However, directly behind the bench in the second row, you will see a woman – a woman who is one of the most important and respected members of the men’s basketball program. That woman is Dr. Andrea Spiker, the orthopedic team physician for the men’s basketball team.
Until recently, Dr. Spiker was the orthopedic team physician for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. She held that role for the women’s team for 8 years. Now, she focuses on the men’s team. Dr. Spiker attends all home games and must be ready for whatever injury may happen to either team.
“I am on call 24/7, typically communicating with the athletic trainer for the team, available to answer any questions about mostly musculoskeletal [issues]. . . We are responsible for the visiting team as well,” Dr. Spikers says. “So if anything happens to one of those athletes, as the physician in attendance at that game, we’ll take care of them.”
Dr. Spiker’s journey to her role as the orthopedic team physician was far from linear. Although initially interested in musculoskeletal medicine, she was quickly inundated with learning internal medicine and cardiology during medical school. She thought she would go into one of those fields. It wasn’t until her time practicing orthopedic surgery during the last two weeks of the third year of medical school that she found her passion again in the orthopedic surgery field.
“I rotated in orthopedic surgery and just completely fell in love with the ability to immediately fix what was broken, to restore in one instance or in one surgical episode, a patient’s ability to function.”
Dr. Spiker enjoyed learning the nuances of musculoskeletal medicine and surgical care, as they were not taught much in medical school. Despite the challenges, she enjoys the benefits that have come with it and hasn’t looked back since.
“It was opening this entire new world that hadn’t been shown to me before, which was really challenging and exciting. It’s a little bit more challenging than some other fields sometimes, but totally worth it.”
In July 2021, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) was introduced into collegiate sports, forever changing the landscape. NIL has allowed college athletes to profit from company endorsements and private investors to pay athletes to play for their schools. This, in turn, has led to many athletes entering the transfer portal, which has also affected the patient/doctor relationship.
Dr. Spiker commented, “We’re seeing a little bit more of a rotating door of athletes coming in and out. I would say it’s kind of interesting because I think it’s detrimental to the students in not having continuity of care from their team doctors.”
Despite the existence of NIL, the transfer portal, and the accompanying difficulty in forming continuing care relationships with some athletes, Dr. Spiker knows how important it is to be physically present for the athletes. During the basketball season, she works a few times a week with the men’s basketball athletic trainer, Brent Neuharth, who has a very close working relationship with the athletes. Although the athletes desire to play, Dr. Spiker helps them understand that she always looks out for their best interests.
Neuharth said of Dr. Spiker, “She’s awesome to work with. She’s a great surgeon, a great orthopedic physician in terms of evaluating and developing plans of care for each individual . . . She cares about what’s best for that individual and thinks thoroughly about all the options and allows the student athlete to take part in making decisions that are best for them individually.”
The orthopedic surgery field, however, is seriously lacking in gender diversity. As of a few years ago, only 6.5% of the orthopedic surgeons in the United States were women. There is no other medical subspecialty with a lower percentage of women. This lack of gender diversity can challenge women attempting to break into and succeed in the field. Indeed, being in such a male-dominated field, Dr. Spiker often feels the need to prove herself. “You have to be better and more by the book,” she said. Dr. Spiker described being a female orthopedic surgeon as if there were only a single red dot in a field of 100 black dots.
“No matter what happens, all eyes are on that red dot. Everybody’s just paying more attention to you from the get-go, so everything you do is under a little bit more critique.”
Dr. Spiker notes, however, that the lack of diversity in the field is improving because 24% of the medical residents currently in the orthopedic surgery field are women.
Dr. Spiker discussed the importance of having mentors for anyone interested in orthopedic surgery. As she began her career, she had several women as mentors and role models, as she was the residency program director, attending physicians, and other residents.
“I think it was very important for me as a female in orthopedics to see successful women in that role.”
Dr. Spiker singled out Dr. Tammy Scerpella as a key mentor in her journey to her current position. Dr. Scerpella is the Chair of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at UW Madison.
“She’s the one who recruited me here, and I would say she’s a huge reason why I ended up coming to Wisconsin. . . Excellent surgeon. It helped me see that it’s possible to be a woman in this field and have a life outside of it as well.”
While some may think that being the men’s basketball orthopedic team physician is Dr. Spiker’s only job, that could not be further from the truth. Dr. Spiker is on staff as an orthopedic surgeon at UW Health in Madison. She developed the hip preservation program at UW Health and treats many patients with hip, knee, and other orthopedic issues. Dr. Spiker noted that being a team physician often involves additional, unpaid time. For example, she commented that sports medicine surgeons usually have surgery or clinical appointments from 7 am to 5 pm. Then, they will attend evening or weekend basketball games during the season. Despite the extra time involved with being the team’s orthopedic physician, Dr. Spiker has no regrets and enthusiastically embraces that role.
“It goes to . . . our love and our passion for doing this for the athletes.”
Dr. Srino Bharam is one of Dr. Spiker’s colleagues in the orthopedic surgery field. Dr. Bharam is the Director of Hip Preservation at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York. He met Dr. Spiker when she started her practice because she trained with one of his colleagues in New York in hip preservation.
“I was impressed with her because she was driven, motivated, and dedicated to hip preservation very early on in her career.”
But even with all her accomplishments, the characteristic that Dr. Bharam admires most about Dr. Spiker is her relentless efforts to advocate for diversity in the field. “She’s a champion for female orthopedic surgery. She’s very active. She takes an active role advocating for female orthopedic surgeons.”
Although not the first woman to succeed in the orthopedic surgery field, Dr. Spiker no doubt had to overcome the challenges and roadblocks inherent in that field. Dr. Spiker has not just succeeded in a male-dominated medical subspecialty; she has earned the respect of players, athletic trainers, and the UW Athletic Department as the orthopedic team physician for the men’s basketball team, once unheard of for a female doctor. So the next time you are at the Kohl Center for a men’s basketball game, look for the woman in the second row behind the bench among a sea of men. That’s Dr. Spiker.
Leave a Reply