Judy Smith, M.D. — Orthopedic Surgeon
Dr. Smith is the leading and most experienced physician for excellence in Foot & Ankle care on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon with Fellowship accreditation in Foot and Ankle reconstruction and also does hand and knee surgery. She has won national awards in her field, and published numerous peer reviewed articles in Orthopedic Journals. She is a prior Board member of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, and a reviewer for the premier journal in the world for foot and ankle physicians: Foot and Ankle International. Dr. Smith trained in New York City, attending medical school at Columbia University, internship at Yale New Haven Hospital, and residency at New York’s internationally renowned Hospital for Special Surgery. She has a passion working with patients to restore function, reduce pain, and help her patients back on the road to a healthy life of mobility and activity. In 2019, as President of the Orthopaedic Foot Club, she hosted a national level meeting of top surgeons in her field to discuss cutting edge techniques. As an Associate Attending Surgeon at Emory University, Dr. Smith established and managed the Foot and Ankle Fellowship Program to train future surgeons in the specialty of Foot & Ankle reconstruction. She also worked closely with European orthopedic surgeons doing total ankle replacements several years before they were approved for use in the United States. QUOTE: "I have always been passionate about being a doctor because I am passionate about taking care of my patients. It is an honor and a privilege to earn the trust of a patient and hear their story. I am especially fortunate to practice orthopedic surgery, because it is a field of positive outcomes, where I able to work with the patient to restore function, reduce pain, and help the patient back on the road to a healthy life of mobility and activity. It is very rewarding to help a patient in pain with a broken bone and restore them back to their former self. It is equally rewarding to go that extra mile, when needed, and investigate their bone health to determine why they might have had a fracture in the first place." I am proud to say that I was taught by some of the best educators in the field of orthopedic surgery who taught me not only how to operate, but also when not to operate. They taught me how to take a history, but also how to listen to the patient's story. They taught me to memorize the anatomy, but also how to think creatively to solve problems that require much more than memorization." QUOTE: "I have had the opportunity to work in different parts of the world, including multiple locations in Africa, as well as in Belgium, where I was performing total ankle replacements before the FDA allowed those same replacements in the United States. I am a proud member of the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society, and a reviewer for Foot and Ankle International." QUOTE: "In my free time, I love most of all to travel with my family, boat, hike, and bicycle."
