WHS grad awarded Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Dr. Jonathan Forsberg has a passion for helping his patients for the long term.

It’s no wonder then that the U.S. Navy orthopaedic oncologist is involved in research projects aimed at developing treatments to stop the spread of tumor growth in amputees suffering from blast injuries and a trial for an implant system that allows a leg prosthesis to be anchored directly to the bone.

“I love my patients — that’s why I do what I do,” he says simply.

Forsberg is a professor in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences-Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Department of Surgery in Bethesda, Maryland. Forsberg is a 1990 graduate of Whitefish High School and the son of Jane and John Forsberg of Whitefish.

His path to becoming an orthopaedic oncologist was decided when he was a medical intern. He had just completed his duty as a general medical officer serving with Marines in Japan and it was time to return to the hospital for further training. Forsberg was looking at neurosurgery or orthopaedic surgery as his choices, but when he found out neurosurgery involved a year of research work and in orthopaedic he could begin working with patients immediately the choice was clear.

“So much with orthopaedic is a quick fix to restore function,” he said. “Being an orthopaedic surgeon was appealing, but I also wanted to do more — to take care of the big problems in life.”

Forsberg is being honored for his career helping and researching better ways to treat patients. He has been selected to receive the 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Each year thousands of nominations are submitted for the prestigious award which is given to a select 100 individuals chosen from throughout business, government, medicine, art, and education, as well as honorees from all branches of the military, for their outstanding contributions to the nation.

Since 1986, the medal has recognized a distinguished list of Americans including seven Presidents of the United States, Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretaries of State Madeline Albright, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, Bob Hope, Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Rosa Parks, and Mike Wallace.

“It is an absolutely humbling experience,” Forsberg said.

Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann, dean of USU’s F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, praised Forsberg as “one of USU and Walter Reed’s stars.”

“He is a brilliant surgical scientist who is tackling one of the most challenging issues in amputee care — strengthening the interface between the patient and their prosthesis,” Kellermann said in a prepared release. “He is an inspiration to all who work with him.”

After graduating from Whitefish High, Forsberg went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and is a 2001 alumnus of USU’s F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He completed an orthopaedic surgery residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, followed by an orthopaedic oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

He is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, and a member of numerous professional medical societies. Forsberg also holds a faculty appointment as assistant professor of surgery at John Hopkins University and serves as a consultant to the National Cancer Institute. Forsberg has devoted much of his Navy career to research geared toward applying personalized medicine to extremity tumor surgery.

He developed the first validated model to help guide the surgical treatment of metastatic bone disease. Using similar techniques, he furthered understanding of the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities.

His military-specific research includes developing treatments for heterotopic ossification — bone growth in soft tissue that can happen following a blast injury or other extensive wound.

His research also involves developing the next-generation osseointegration techniques — connecting bone to an implant for patients with amputations. He is part of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration trial for the OPRA device developed in Sweden that allows an implant in a patient’s remaining thigh bone to connect directly to an external prosthetic limb.

The Medal of Honor is sponsored by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and will be presented at a ceremony held on historic Ellis Island on May 13.