UC San Diego Surgeon Joseph Mitchell Masters the Art of Restoring Patients’ Mobility 

When a close relative fell ill, Joseph Mitchell, M.D., turned to medicine to help. The decision led him to a career in helping patients regain their daily functioning as an orthopedic surgeon at UC San Diego. 

Today, Joseph Mitchell, M.D., is an award-winning assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and a joint reconstruction surgeon at UC San Diego Health. His dedication to his field has earned him the resident-driven UC San Diego Whitehill Prize for Clinical Excellence and a respected practice built on mentorship and care.  

As a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Mitchell was on a clear path to studying criminal justice, with an interest in sports. Then his mother fell ill.  

As Mitchell’s family shifted to accommodate the unexpected, he pivoted to reading studies on human biology to understand what might lie ahead. The incident sparked an interest in human health that remained even as Mitchell’s mother’s health stabilized.  

Mitchell soon switched his major to biology and began to shadow doctors specializing in infectious diseases. He would later complete his medical degree and residency training with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, followed by a fellowship with UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.  

Building a practice at UC San Diego 

Mitchell says he felt a natural connection to orthopedic surgery, a specialty that treats diseases and acute and chronic injuries of the muscles, joints and bones. The tools orthopedic surgeons used reminded him of his father, a mechanic.  

“I think there’s some truth to the saying that you migrate toward your group of people within medicine, toward the people you have the most in common with,” said Mitchell. 

Mitchell’s expertise lies in treating chronic diseases and disorders of the hips and knees. One of his strengths includes replacing damaged hip joints through a bikini line incision, a fairly non-invasive surgery that reduces scarring by placing the incision in the crease between the hip and leg. From there, the surgeon can access and replace the damaged or worn joint with relative ease. 

The technique, so called because the incision can be hidden beneath underwear or a bikini, prioritizes patient recovery time and pain while restoring mobility. 

It’s that ability to have an impact on patients’ daily functioning and chronic pain that first drew and then kept Mitchell in the field of orthopedic surgery. 

“At some point, I realized that quantity of life, although important, is not the most important thing. It’s really about the quality of the time that you have,” said Mitchell. “Orthopedics is about improving people’s function and wellbeing.” 

Mitchell has made strides in treating degenerative conditions that include inflammatory arthritis and avascular necrosis. In patients with avascular necrosis, a loss of blood supply to the bone causes the tissue to die. The condition can be excruciating even when the patient is resting. It’s one of several conditions that Mitchell treats with the goal of restoring independence and freedom of movement to his patients.  

The value of mentorship 

At UC San Diego, Mitchell has strived to share the power of impact in patient lives as a surgeon, mentor and educator.  

Working at an academic medical center allowed Mitchell a direct path to actively improving and sharing surgical skills with up-and-coming physicians. His experience learning from more senior practitioners during residency training inspired him to become a teacher himself.  

“We all want to leave a mark and have an impact, and [teaching] is my way of doing that,” said Mitchell. 

In his practice, robots have proved to be both an effective teaching tool and a means of reducing human error in the operating room. With the assistance of robotic arms and other technology being integrated across the surgical fields, Mitchell says he has been able to increase his own accuracy and efficiency, streamline and shorten patient recoveries, and help trainees prioritize safety in the operating room.  

Mitchell says he knows he’s succeeded in his goals when he hears from former mentees who have just completed a procedure they learned under his tutelage. Within his first year as a faculty member, his residents nominated him for UC San Diego’s respected Whitehill Prize for Clinical Excellence for junior faculty members dedicated to their practice and furthering education.  

“Dr. Mitchell embodies what it means to be a clinician educator,” said Keenan Onodera, M.D., an alumnus of the UC San Diego Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s residency program and a former mentee of Dr. Mitchell. “He is a favorite amongst the residency program, and for good reason. Personally, Joe has been a mentor to me in and out of the operating room. He has helped me develop a fantastic technique for anterior total hip arthroplasty for my own practice, as well as provided me with wisdom and insights that have aided me in securing a great job opportunity out of fellowship.” 

Mitchell has also joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and volunteers through the non-profit Nth Dimensions to ensure that students from underrepresented backgrounds gain exposure to careers in orthopedics.  

“I think it’s very cool that we are one of the few [orthopedic surgery] programs to have a woman chair,” said Mitchell. “That representation is very important to me, and I’d like to continue to push that.” 

As he continues to build his practice at UC San Diego, Mitchell has forged new collaborations with the VA San Diego Healthcare System and colleagues in other fields of medicine and research. All of it moves toward creating a more diverse, cross-disciplinary bedrock for improved patient outcomes in orthopedic surgery.