Bisson Honored for Advancing Inclusivity, Health Equity

The Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society promotes the professional development of women in orthopaedics throughout their careers. Its mission includes advocating for inclusion within the field and supporting mentorship and leadership opportunities for women surgeons and trainees.

As a board member at large, Bisson will provide insight and guidance on policies and programs and work with the organization’s other leaders to support professional development of women in orthopaedics. 

Bisson notes that orthopaedic surgery is the least gender diverse among medical specialties. “There’s a problem in orthopaedics in that only about six or seven percent of orthopaedic surgeons are women,” he says.

“There’s pretty good evidence that if you share some perspectives and some experience with the people who are taking care of you, a lot of times there’s more uptake of the treatment, there’s more communication,” Bisson says.

Working with women from the Department of Orthopaedics faculty, Bisson says the department has been intentional about recruiting more women for training.

During this year’s match, women filled three of the five orthopaedic residency slots, he says. The year before, two women began residencies in the department. 

The department continues to encourage women medical students from other schools to visit the Jacobs School while exploring training options. Visitors can participate in a four-week clerkship rotation through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program. 

Bisson, who leads the UBMD CPR/AED Outreach Program, has further made it his mission to expand CPR knowledge among Western New Yorkers and empower bystanders to assist in the event of a cardiac emergency.

For his work to address social influences of health, Bisson received the American Heart Association (AHA)’s Eastern States Health Equity Leadership Award in March during a hands-only CPR demonstration and community event at the BUILD Community School in Buffalo.

This June, Bisson also received a 2025 Excellence in Health Care Award from the regional news publication Buffalo Business First, highlighting his achievements and commitment to the Western New York community.

Bisson has led a team that teaches hands-only CPR to Western New Yorkers, seeking to change the statistics around CPR while promoting more equitable health and well-being.

As medical director for the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres sports teams, Bisson was part of the medical team that provided on-field care when Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a live game in 2023.

Bisson has since begun studying data about cardiac arrest survival rates and CPR and taking action. When performed immediately, CPR can double or triple survival odds. However, data also indicate that Black and Hispanic individuals are much less likely to receive bystander CPR.  

Shortly after the incident with Hamlin, Bisson spearheaded efforts to bring hands-only CPR training to underserved communities in Buffalo. Initially, he and colleagues sought to train 3,000 community members in CPR. Now, in conjunction with local partners and ongoing presence at local events, Bisson and team members have trained more than 22,000 people.

“I always accept these awards on behalf of our team, because I’m not the guy who’s training 22,000 people,” Bisson says. “It is such a broad team. I hope everyone recognizes how much of a team effort this is.”

Equipped with practice manikins and raffle prizes, a team of some 200 medical and nursing students and other community members have run training sessions at farmers markets, Juneteenth celebrations, and many other community gatherings.

“The thing that’s been most gratifying and surprising is how much enthusiasm and energy there is," Bisson says. “When we do these different training events it’s always a very vibrant scene. There are always people who are having fun learning CPR.”