The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Orthopaedic Surgery has welcomed three new faculty members–Drs. Ronit Wollstein, Rachel Aliotta, and Shane Strom.

Ronit Wollstein, M.D.

Ronit Wollstein, M.D., joined the department as a professor and head of its Hand and Upper Extremity Section.

Wollstein joins us from the New York University School of Medicine Department of Orthopedic Surgery, where she served as an attending in hand surgery.

Wollstein received her medical degree from Hadassah and Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel, where she remained and completed a multispecialty internship, a residency in orthopedic surgery, and a residency in hand surgery. Wollstein went on to complete clinical fellowships in hand surgery at St. Helier NHS Trust in London; the University of Connecticut, Hartford Hospital; and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Wollstein’s research interests include wrist structure and function relationships, rehabilitation of the wrist, characterizing wrist anatomy as it varies between ethnicities, radiographic guidelines for surgical functional outcome, development of a novel screening tool for osteoporosis, and development of new surgical and conservative tools for treatment of hand conditions.

Rachel Aliotta, M.D.

Rachel Aliotta, M.D., joined the department as an assistant professor in the Hand and Upper Extremity Section and specializes in hand and reconstructive surgery.

Aliotta completed residency training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio in 2020. Subsequently, she pursued further specialization by undertaking a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at UAB in 2021. In the same year, upon completing her fellowship, she joined UAB and the Birmingham VA Health Care System as an assistant professor with a dual academic appointment in the Departments of Surgery and Orthopaedics.

Her clinical interests include hand and wrist surgery, hand trauma, orthoplastic reconstruction, limb salvage, and post-amputation targeted muscle reinnervation.

Shane Strom, M.D.

Shane Strom, M.D., joined the department as an assistant professor in the Pediatrics Section.

Strom attended medical school at Louisiana State University. He went on to complete his residency with the UAB Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, followed by a one-year fellowship at Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas, Texas, before coming back to UAB and joining the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery as a faculty member.

Welcome to our new Department of Orthopaedic Surgery faculty members! We look forward to the expertise, leadership, and unmatched patient care they will contribute to our department.