Interview with Peter Ward, PhD
Why did you feel that it was important to write Netter’s Integrated Musculoskeletal System? What does your publication add to the field?
Many medical schools are moving away from courses organized around distinct topics (e.g. anatomy, physiology, biochemistry) to longitudinal, integrated courses based around body systems or clinical presentations. There are few texts available for those curricula and I am hoping that this book will fill a unique niche in health sciences education. In addition, musculoskeletal problems account for many of the common presenting complaints that patients will bring to their physicians, physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals. A thorough knowledge of the bones, muscles, nerves, and vessels of this system can provide a wide range of treatment options that can make a tremendous impact on people’s lives and productivity. Having a comprehensive text on all aspects of the musculoskeletal system will make that knowledge easier to gain and to retain.
What is the most exciting aspect of Netter’s Integrated Musculoskeletal System? What chapter or topic covered in the new edition are you most excited about?
First and foremost, I find the musculoskeletal system absolutely fascinating. Apart from the knowledge I gained when writing this book, I am most excited that it is organized in a spiral fashion. The text begins with an overview of the bones, major muscle groups, and important nerves and vessels related to them. It then dives into how the tissues and cells of the musculoskeletal system actually accomplish their tasks by investigating their physiology and biochemistry. We then explore how these structures developed from a single cell into their mature state, as well as the intricate control that the central nervous system exerts over muscle activity and our awareness of what happens around us. In the last four chapters we investigate the details of the back, upper limbs, lower limbs, and torso in a way that revisits and elaborates on the preceding chapters. Clinical problems related to each aspect of the musculoskeletal system are addressed throughout the text. My sincere hope is that this textbook can allow any interested reader to appreciate the musculoskeletal system; how it is structured, how it works, and the problems that can compromise it.
Who will find the greatest value from Netter’s Integrated Musculoskeletal System and why?
This book is tailored to health science students who need to put that information into a clinical context. That is why it includes not only the normal anatomy but many of the injuries, illnesses, and other conditions that can impact this system and have an impact of their lives and the lives of their patients. However, I hope that this book is comprehensible to any reader with an interest in how their bones, muscles, nerves, and vessels work to make meaningful movements.
What new ideas, practices, or procedures do you hope your readers take away from Netter’s Integrated Musculoskeletal System?
The idea that our knowledge constructs: anatomy, histology, physiology, and biochemistry do not have hard borders and that the body functions as an integrated whole simultaneously from the macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular levels. We break the body down into concepts with arbitrary boundaries so that it is easier to learn, but it is really worth the effort to study it in its entirety. And if that weren’t enough, tracking how the body’s systems, organs, and cells develop from a single cell into a mind-boggling array of distinct but inter-related structures adds a 4th dimension to our study. Such an integrated view of the musculoskeletal system further enhances our understanding of what does happen, what can happen, and how the process can go “off the rails” to cause disease or injury.
What problem do you hope the future generation of your specialty will be able to solve?
I hope that future anatomists will continue looking into the human body at the macroscopic and microscopic levels to continually refine our understanding of human structure and function. I believe there are many discoveries yet to made, even in something as “stable” as anatomy. I hope that continued research will highlight the ways in which variations in anatomy and function are simply by-products of development and that an improved understanding of the musculoskeletal system and every stage of its development and at every level of size will continue to provide therapies for the afflictions that it faces.
Is there anything else about Netter’s Integrated Musculoskeletal System you’d like to say?
The process of writing a textbook can be overwhelming and frustrating, even when you love the topic. The people at Elsevier have been an amazing source of support, kept this project on track, and gave me all the resources I needed to move this book from a concept to become a tangible object. While I labored over the writing, I can say without jealousy that the verbiage is secondary to the amazing and illuminating illustrations created by Frank Netter and Carlos Machado. Being given the opportunity to showcase their art is a tremendous honor and I am forever grateful.
Peter Ward, PhD is a professor of anatomy at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg, WV. He grew up in Casper, Wyoming and then attended college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. After a few years of being kicked around by the real world, he began graduate school at Purdue University and earned a PhD in 2005. His wife and him (they met at Purdue) then moved to Lewisburg and he stared teaching at WVSOM and she began practicing as a veterinarian. At WVSOM he taught gross anatomy, histology, embryology, neuroanatomy, as well as the history of medicine. He would describe himself as an unapologetic nerd about all things related to human anatomy. Every time he learned something new about the body it seems as though he found a new puzzle piece that makes the entire picture more comprehensible, but leaves the gaps even more tantalizingly open to discovery. Passing that fascination to his students, who will put that knowledge to work as healers, is one of his greatest joys. He also practices and teaches martial arts, which might be considered as another way of studying human anatomy, with a somewhat different focus. He has an anatomy education channel on Youtube called Clinical Anatomy Explained! where he tries to explain complex concepts in interesting ways to make them more comprehensible.
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