News Release

April 24, 2008

Chris DeFrancesco, 860-679-3914
e-mail: cdefrancesco@uchc.edu

Joint Replacement Surgeon Joins UConn Health Center

FARMINGTON, CONN. – R. Michael Meneghini, M.D., has joined the University of Connecticut Health Center as director of both the UConn Joint Replacement Center and the new Center for Joint Preservation in the New England Musculoskeletal Institute.

Meneghini specializes in all aspects of hip and knee replacement. At the Center for Joint Preservation, he promotes operative and non-operative treatment regimens for younger patients with arthritis of the hip and knee.

“There are a number of approaches we can take to relieve joint pain and discomfort, which come in many forms,” Meneghini says. “And we’re more recently able to recognize precursors to arthritis, which means we can now intervene when patients are in their 20s and 30s and hopefully prolong the use of the joints they were born with, potentially postponing the need for a hip or knee replacement.”

Meneghini comes to UConn from the St. Vincent Center of Joint Replacement in Indianapolis. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine, did his internship and residency work in orthopaedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and completed a fellowship in lower extremity adult reconstruction at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is board certified in orthopaedic surgery.

“The addition of Dr. Meneghini provides the UConn Health Center with yet another outstanding clinician,” says Jay R. Lieberman, M.D., director of the New England Musculoskeletal Institute. “However, in addition to being an excellent orthopaedic surgeon, he is a prolific researcher, and he will be working on the development of new regimens to enhance the results of hip and knee surgery.”

Meneghini lives in Unionville.

More information about the New England Musculoskeletal Institute is available at http://nemsi.uchc.edu/. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 800-535-6232 or 860-679-7692.

Photo: http://www.uchc.edu/ocomm/images/images_news/meneghini.jpg
Caption: Dr. R. Michael Meneghini is now seeing patients at the UConn Joint Replacement Center and the new Center for Joint Preservation at the UConn Health Center’s New England Musculoskeletal Institute.

The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the UConn Medical Group, University Dentists, and John Dempsey Hospital. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. To learn more about the UConn Health Center, visit our website at www.uchc.edu.

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