AAPI Heritage Month Spotlight

As San Francisco’s largest private orthopaedic practice for nearly 50 years, California Pacific Orthopaedics is delighted to recognize our diverse team and celebrate their cultures, experiences, and their contributions within our organization. Now is a great time to celebrate our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) team  who are dedicated to prioritizing patient care as AAPI Heritage Month recently concluded. Heritage months are important for honoring our diverse backgrounds, cultures, and histories.

Lindsey Valone, MD

Dr. Lindsey C. Valone is an orthopaedic surgeon who is also dual board-certified in orthopaedic surgery and hand and upper extremity surgery. She has been a part of the CPO team for four years and has broad clinical interests from congenital anomalies to adult arthritis and from common hand problems to complex reconstructive surgery.

She actively treats patients from children to adults and says that the best part of her job is being able to provide quality care for her patients while also working alongside her wonderful colleagues. “I love the opportunity to improve a patient’s quality of life and function and get them back to doing the things that they love,” Dr. Valone says. “I love the team mentality at Cal Pac Ortho. I feel very lucky to be a part of a group that has such a longstanding history in the Bay Area and is known for providing the highest level of care for our patients.”

Dr. Valone shares one of her most impactful experiences of participating in her first surgery as a medical student which shaped her to be the exceptional surgeon that she is today. “I met a very inspirational pediatric hand surgeon when I was a medical student. She invited me to the operating room and the first surgery I scrubbed into was a ‘pollicization’ procedure – where we treated an infant born without thumbs by taking the index finger and making it into a thumb. I knew that day that I wanted to become a hand surgeon.”

Mark I. Ignatius, D.O.

Dr. Mark I. Ignatius is our Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) doctor specializing in the diagnoses and treatment of spine and musculoskeletal disorders. He has been a part of our team for nearly seven years and offers a full range of care for his patients with a focus on non-operative treatments and minimally invasive procedures.

He explains that some of the best moments of his job consist of developing patient relationships while also focusing on non-operative treatments that bring patients significant recoveries in regaining physical strength. “I have to say one of the best aspects of my profession is the patient relationships I’ve developed over the years. I’ve gotten to know many patients very well which has made my work even more rewarding and fun,” Dr. Ignatius says. “Being able to offer non-operative treatment options for patients and keeping them ‘in the game’ as much as possible has been an honor for me.”

Dr. Ignatius completed his residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the UCLA/ WLA program, followed by Spine Fellowship at the UCLA Spine Center where he did research focused non-operative spine treatment. “I have had some fantastic mentors during my schooling and residency training that influenced my decision going into this field,” he says. “I really love the combination of being in the role of non-operative interventionalist working with a fantastic team of orthopaedic surgeons to collectively improve patients function.”

Anji Yang, PA-C

Physician Assistant Anji Yang sees all kinds of patients with sports-related injuries from the shoulder to the ankle. She has been a part of the CPO team for three years and assists in many kinds of surgeries from total hip replacements to partial knee replacements.

She says that her experiences with her patients and their recovery to an active and healthy lifestyle are some of the highlights of being a physician assistant. “I’m very proud of my established rapport with my patients. It is one thing to be a provider and to practice medical knowledge. It is entirely another thing to be a human and make individual connections with the patients,” Yang says. “Seeing patients go from being immobile to being able to return to all their favorite activities again. The human body is capable to such great healing and we get to be a part of that process.”

Anji’s passion for medicine has always been a part of her life since childhood. “I remember following my dad into his laboratory where he was always working on new medications…, but the major turning point was when I became a nursing assistant at an assisted living facility and I finally got to help people directly and contribute to their lives in a meaningful way.”