Dr. Campbell gets a hug from 6-year-old Patricia “Itzel” Rodriguez. Rodriguez underwent surgery in 2002 to straighten her body, which was severely slanted because of scoliosis.
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The invention of the Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Rib by Robert M. Campbell, Jr., M.D., pediatric orthopaedic surgeon and professor of orthopaedics at the Health Science Center, has earned him the prestigious Therapeutic Achievement Award from the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).

Each year NORD honors outstanding individuals, government leaders, companies and biomedical researchers for their unique contributions to the understanding or treatment of rare “orphan” diseases.

Dr. Campbell created the titanium rib in response to a helpless baby born without ribs in 1987. Seventeen years and more than 300 surgeries later, Dr. Campbell’s distinctive creation was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and can now be used throughout the world for treatment of rare diseases such as scoliosis (curved spine), fused ribs, small chests and missing ribs.

Dr. Campbell earned his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1977 and has trained surgeons in other U.S. cities and worldwide to perform the Titanium Rib procedure. He and his colleague, Melvin Smith, M.D., staff physician at the Thoracic Institute at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatric general surgery at the Health Science Center, developed five types of operations using the titanium rib and identified a new disease, thoracic insufficiency syndrome, in landmark papers in orthopaedics journals.

The titanium rib is described as the first truly new spine deformity treatment to gain FDA approval since 1962.