UMKC Selects Mark Bernhardt, M.D., for Orthopaedics Post

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mark Bernhardt, M.D., will become chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Truman Medical Center effective July 1.

Betty Drees, M.D. and dean of the UMKC School of Medicine, and Mark Steele, M.D. and chief medical officer of Truman Medical Center, today announced the results of the search for the new chairman.

Dr. Bernhardt has served as the interim chairman of the department since July 2012. During that time, he has continued his private medical practice with Dickson-Diveley Orthopaedics.

Dr. Bernhardt joined Dickson-Diveley Orthopaedics in 1990 after completing a fellowship in spine surgery at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital, Boston. He is a board-certified surgeon through the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.

He finished a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita and St. Francis Regional Medical Center.

He earned a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City. He has a bachelor degree in biology from the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

While Dr. Bernhardt’s role at Saint Luke’s Hospital will change, he will continue to have a strong presence on the Saint Luke’s campus both in surgery and in clinic. For example, he plans to have clinic one day a week, on Friday, at Dickson-Diveley Orthopaedics’ office on the Saint Luke’s campus.