Duke Hand Club

     The Duke Hand Club, a non-profit organization founded in 1984, was the realization of J. Leonard Goldner, MD and James R. Urbaniak, MD’s vision for Duke Hand surgery to establish an alumni chapter. The charge was, and remains, to provide members with a reliable forum “for the sharing between physicians and educators involved in the medical specialty of surgery of the hand, or research and other information which cannot be shared by telephonic or written media; to fund periodic meetings and seminars, the sole purpose of which is to share information of benefit to the practice of hand surgery”.

     Since its inception, this club has met every three years co-incident with the triennial IFSSH meeting.  A truly academic meeting, members have perennially enjoyed sharing their experiences with the latest hand surgery topics or simply reporting on an interesting case report—all in a relaxed and engaging forum. 

     The social aspects of the meetings are unparalleled with destinations in the past including, Durham, NC, Cairns, Australia, Virgin Gorda, Italy, and Greece to name a few… Spouses are encouraged to attend and, in fact, this camaraderie among families has been one of the nicest side benefits of the meetings. 

     In addition to the triennial meeting, the Duke Hand Club sponsors annual research projects at Duke, providing funds to a resident who has shown interest towards a career in hand and/or microsurgery.  The club’s monies also go towards partial sponsorship of the guest lecturer at the annual American Society for Surgery of the Hand meeting.