Jaime D. Hernandez, MD

Jaime D. Hernandez, MD, is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in hip and knee replacement. He joined SCOI in 2010, and performs approximately 900 joint replacements per year. He has been recognized by CMS as one of the most experienced joint replacement surgeons in California. Dr. Hernandez is a leader in orthopaedic robotics, and he was the first surgeon in the USA to perform an outpatient CORI robotic joint replacement. He is most interested in rapid recovery surgery, and when appropriate, uses robotics and the outpatient ASC, to get patients comfortably home the same day. He was specialty trained in hip and knee replacement at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a member of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS), the specialty society for surgeons focused on hip and knee replacement.

While in Boston, Dr. Hernandez gained tremendous experience performing complex joint replacements and revising failed joint replacements. He was further trained in techniques of partial knee replacement, anterior hip replacement, and hip resurfacing. While at Harvard, Dr. Hernandez was a member of the trauma team, treating upper and lower extremity injuries at the region’s level 1 trauma center. Caring for patients with these devastating injuries and helping restore their level of function is particularly rewarding to Dr. Hernandez.

He has given several national and international presentations, including one on his technique of computer-navigated knee replacement, which was presented at the International Computer-Assisted Orthopedic Surgery meeting in Paris, France.

Dr. Hernandez was born and raised in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and attended Easton Area High School. For college, he traveled to upstate New York to attend Cornell University and majored in biology. During his undergraduate years, he took part in basic science and clinical research programs at some of the nation’s top research centers, including The Harvard School of Public Health, UCSF’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, and UCLA’s School of Medicine. Dr. Hernandez graduated from Cornell with honors.

He then attended Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and developed an early interest in orthopedics, specifically in joint replacement. He worked with surgeons in the orthopedic department, researching the use of computers in joint replacement. This work, which was published in the Journal of Arthroplasty, showed that surgeons who use computer navigation in knee replacement achieve better alignment than surgeons who do not.

After graduating from medical school, Dr. Hernandez spent time volunteering in rural hospitals in Colombia, South America, and treated patients with a variety of illnesses.

Returning to New York for his orthopedic surgery residency, Dr. Hernandez chose to attend the State University of New York at Buffalo, as it is the nation’s premier center for CAOS (computer-assisted orthopedic surgery) and the site where the first computer-navigated knee replacement in the United States was performed. During residency, Dr. Hernandez’s research efforts focused on hip arthroscopy, a minimally invasive technique used to treat sports injuries and some degenerative conditions. His work, which explained how to safely repair the hip labrum, was published in Arthroscopy. Dr. Hernandez excelled during his surgical training, and upon graduation, was honored as the recipient of The Chairman’s Award.

In his free time, Dr. Hernandez enjoys traveling, hiking, golf, and reading.