UBC Ortho Legends Spotlight: Dr. Robert McGraw

Dr. Robert McGraw is a UBC orthopaedics legend—renowned for his precision, professionalism, and humanity. From pioneering joint replacement techniques to shaping generations of surgeons through mentorship, his career reflects surgical mastery and an unwavering commitment to patient-centered care. Whether in the operating room or in life, Dr. McGraw set a standard that blended technical excellence with compassion, leaving an indelible mark on orthopaedics.

If there’s a word to describe Dr. Robert McGraw, it’s precise,” said Dr. Firoz Miyanji, Clinical Professor with UBC Orthopaedics and a pediatric spine surgeon at BC Children’s Hospital.

“He demonstrates the depth of what it means to be a surgeon all around; he was precise in the details, but he never lost that human element. It’s a big source of pride for me that I was among his last residents, and I got to learn from him directly.”

Dr. Robert McGraw is a master of precision, from the knot in his tie, to his rainforest garden that stays green all year, to his careful approach to surgery.

“I can still see in my mind exactly how Dr. McGraw would perform arthroplasty,” said Dr. Miyanji.

Dr. Miyanji describes Dr. McGraw as someone who maintains a certain set of standards as a surgeon, someone who is very down-to-earth but with a deep professionalism. One of his rules: no scrubs on the ward.

“I remember walking in after a surgery to see him sitting beside the bed,” said Dr. Miyanji. “That was so notable: never standing, never above the patient. Always seated. And he was just looking through family photos with this person who’d come in for a procedure. It took me aback the first time I saw it. But his approach has always been to meet people where they are at.”

Miyanji describes a care and thoughtfulness that sticks with him. In particular, the idea of knowing not just when to operate, but also when not to: “Dr. McGraw—and I still call him Dr. McGraw, even after all this time—he knew when to hold back. It’s an important skill to know when surgery might be harmful. Dr. McGraw—the person and the world-renowned surgeon—has never been in the business of hurting anyone.”

The best place to begin is the beginning

“I am what I am because of others, and could not have achieved what I have without the help and support of others, namely my friends and family,” McGraw said.

Dr. McGraw grew up in Vancouver, finishing as the Top Boy of his class at Maple Grove Elementary in 1947 and then as valedictorian at Prince of Wales High School in 1953. Even in his earliest days, he was inquisitive and determined. In Grade 5, he and his peers successfully lobbied their principal, Oliver Lacey, to finish their studies at Maple Grove with their beloved Grade 5 teacher. She stayed with them through their graduation into middle school at Point Grey Junior High.

At Point Grey, he took an interest in the school’s metalwork shop, where he learned about alloys, forging, and lathe operation, formative training that would later be useful in his work as an orthopaedic surgeon. He developed an interest in immunology and bacteriology and thought he’d pursue a career in transplantation, which was an emerging field at the time.

In medical school at The University of British Columbia, he sought mentorship with Dr. Allan McKenzie, himself an accomplished surgeon and educator. The Faculty of Medicine curriculum at the time required second-year students to find a mentor and complete a graduate thesis; Dr. McGraw notes that it was important to make a good choice, because many of those who chose their mentors chose a path for life. “The requirement, which was later dropped by the Faculty, made a big impression on me,” he said.

“I would ask him questions, and he would tell me to ‘go figure it out,’” said Dr. McGraw, who wrote his graduate thesis on transplant research—An Experimental and Clinical Study of the Degenerative Process Occurring in Aortic Homographs (1960).

From second year to graduation, McGraw continued to work for Dr. McKenzie, one of the only students to continue with their mentor after the program was dissolved. Under McKenzie’s direction, McGraw established a study that demonstrated success in inducing papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with metastases in rats using radioactive Iodine 131 and a low-iodine diet. McGraw’s study showed that tumour growth was suppressed by thyroid extract.

Later, he would find that McKenzie had submitted a paper on their thyroid work for publication in the journal Cancer, listing McGraw as a first author.

MCGRAW RW, MCKENZIE AD. Carcinoma of the Thyroid and Laryngopharynx Following Irradiation; A Report of 3 Cases. Cancer. 1965 Jun;18:692-6. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(196506)18:6<692::aid-cncr2820180606>3.0.co;2-2. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14297465/

“His mentorship style was to push for growth without saying anything,” McGraw recalls. “He was very matter-of-fact. Supportive, but he wanted you to really learn how to do things properly.”

For Dr. Ruby Grewal, a hand and upper limb surgeon and Professor with the Roth McFarlane Hand & Upper Limb Centre at Western University, this empowered approach to mentorship echoed in her experience learning from Dr. McGraw.

“He was ahead of his time in his style of thinking and teaching. He helped you to see the bigger picture, take what was happening, and learn from it,” said Dr. Grewal, also one of Dr. McGraw’s last residents.

A multi-generational pattern of learning from the best

“I was 32 before school ended,” said Dr. McGraw, who began his orthopaedic education at UBC in 1961 following a year-long internship at Montreal General and Montreal Children’s Hospitals.

Throughout the 1960s, Dr. McGraw studied surgery across several disciplines; he became Chief Resident with UBC’s Division of Orthopaedics in 1965. In 1966, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. A turning point came in 1967, however, when he became a Travelling Fellow of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society.

Dr. Patterson and Dr. Harold Robinson, Medical Director of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society (now The Arthritis Society), were early advocates of a team-based approach to arthritis care. This novel idea brought together rheumatologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, and orthopaedists to provide comprehensive patient care. Revolutionary for its time, it captured the attention of the United States Senate. A delegation from the US came to audit the program.

After Dr. Patterson asked McGraw if he would be willing to focus on surgery for arthritis, Dr. Robinson applied for McGraw to participate in the first year-long Travelling Fellowship to study advances in the surgical treatment of arthritis. Furthermore, the fellowship included a commitment from UBC for a faculty position for McGraw upon his return.

In 1967, Dr. McGraw travelled extensively throughout the US, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and France, which offered him exposure to major joint replacement surgeries. He worked closely with Sir John Charnley, James McKee, Watson Farrar, and Robert Judet in the UK and in Paris, all of whom had developed forms of hip replacement. He also learned new techniques in shoulder, knee, elbow, and silicon finger joint replacements. When he returned to Vancouver, he introduced these new implant procedures at VGH.

Dr Patterson did not permit anyone at VGH to perform hip and knee replacement surgeries until surgeons took time away to study the procedure. McGraw volunteered to learn both. In late 1967, he performed the first hip replacement at VGH with Dr Patterson observing. He wasn’t there for long.

“That was the worst operation I have ever seen,” said Patterson, smoking in the hall. The next week, he performed four total hip replacements. McGraw continued joint replacement surgery, developing expertise in salvaging failed implants, until his forced retirement in 2000.

“Your first year in residency, you watch your first hip replacement,” said Dr. Grewal. “Over a three-month period, you go from watching, to helping, to leading surgery, and it’s very intense, both emotionally and physically.” Dr. Ruby Grewal was a first-year resident the last year that Dr. McGraw retired, and credits his mentorship as transformative.

McGraw regularly used a martial arts analogy for performing surgery: “It’s all body mechanics: a small person can flip a big person, he used to remind me,” said Dr. Grewal, who despite being small in stature performed her first hip replacement on a man nearly twice her size.

“He took the time to teach me how to optimize my body mechanics, minimizing the physical force I needed to get the job done,” said Dr. Grewal. “He has been a real advocate for women in surgery; at the time I was a resident, there weren’t many women in what was then a very physical, stereotypically ‘jock’-led profession. He gave me the confidence to figure out how to do the work. I believe he influenced a kinder, more empathetic generation of leaders.”

Dr. McGraw recalls a visiting professorship in which he encountered a patient during ward rounds who had undergone surgery the night before. The patient was a young woman involved in a head-on motor-vehicle collision, who sustained a hip fracture that an unsupervised resident operated on.

McGraw, who had been empowered with the full authority of an on-site surgeon, walked in at 6:30 that morning for a ward walk.

“When we—including the head nurse and accompanying residents—saw her the following morning, it was evident that the patient was unwell, with a fever and high pulse. She had been treated as an uncomplicated hip fracture, when in fact her hip fracture was a compound wound with an unrecognized large posterior buttock wound,” said Dr. McGraw. “I remember the staff at the hospital warning me not to go in there, as the door was closed.”

“Well, the door being closed was why we went in,” McGraw recalls. “The ward walk was interrupted by a sterile examination of the wound with the nurse, and emergency surgery was arranged immediately for the untreated wound.”

The supervising surgeon had not been present, and the resident was inexperienced. The purpose of a visiting professorship is to share techniques and approaches; in this case, it was an opportunity to emphasize the importance of mentorship in teaching.

“I supervised every resident involved in a surgery,” McGraw recalls. “In the aftermath of that surgery, for that resident, the value of having a strong and committed mentor was a lesson he would never forget.”

This experience was typical of how he would proceed as an educator: “The principle of mentorship in education can seem like it’s fading. It’s a privilege to be a doctor, and the moment you stop thinking that way, you shouldn’t be in it. I made sure every resident understood that.”

McGraw Highlights

• 1967

  CARS Travelling Fellowship (1 year)

• AOA Outstanding Canadian Resident

• 1973

  ABC Travelling Fellowship

• 1989-90

  President, Canadian Orthopaedic Association

• 1999

  VGH Academic Award

• 2000

  UBC Golden Jubilee Award for Excellence

• UBC Chancellor’s Circle (Top 200 Contributors)

• BCMA Wallace Wilson Award for Leadership

• 2002

  Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Exemplary and Outstanding contribution to Canada

• UBC Great Trekker Award (Alma Mater Society)

• 2004

  UBC Research Award for Innovation

• 2006

  Honorary Founding Member, BC Hand Society

• 2007

  COA Award of Merit: “Years of Service to the Profession and to the People of Canada”

• 2023

  Inducted into Vancouver Coastal Health “Hall of Honour”

“He has been a real advocate for women in surgery; at the time I was a resident, there weren’t many women in what was then a very physical, stereotypically ‘jock’-led profession. He gave me the confidence to figure out how to do the work. I believe he influenced a kinder, more empathetic generation of leaders.”

— Dr. Grewal

“I never saw him making decisions that were transactional. He always demonstrates a willingness to let go of something to see someone else grow. He has a way of helping you find your own path.”

— Dr. Miyanji

Painting a bigger picture of orthopaedics in North America

Dr. McGraw is well known for his involvement with the orthopaedics community in Canada, but he has also been an influential figure more broadly. After his residency in 1966, he was the first Canadian selected by the American Orthopaedic Association for what was to become the North American Travelling Fellowship.

Dr. Patterson encouraged residency candidates to qualify in the US after completing the Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC) certification and joining the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Canadian surgeons could access ongoing professional development in the US. Dr. McGraw became certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) and was one of only two Canadians invited to be an examiner with the ABOS.

McGraw became a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) after Board certification. For six years, he was the only Canadian representative on the AAOS Board of Councillors, which has 40,000 members.

The American Orthopaedic Association is an academic organization with an invitation-only membership of about 1500. Drs Patterson, Morton and McGraw were all members of the AOA, which had a close relationship with the Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA).

In 1973, McGraw completed the prestigious “ABC” Fellowship—a partnership between American, British, and Canadian orthopaedics associations. The ABC Fellowship has only hosted UBC faculty seven times since 1949: Dr. Frank Patterson (1949), Dr. Kenneth Morton (1965), Dr. Robert McGraw (1973), Dr. Bas Masri (2001), Dr. Alastair Younger (2007), Dr. Brian Kwon (2011), and Dr. Kishore Mulpuri (2015).

In 1996, McGraw was invited by the AOA to serve as the Presidential Guest Speaker to address the Canadian Health Care system. It was there that he received the AOA President’s Medal.

In 1980, McGraw joined a delegation of American and Canadian orthopaedic surgeons led by AAOS President Dr. Robert Wells to the People’s Republic of China. The visit, initiated by the Chinese Minister of Health, included a month-long tour that enabled the exchange of techniques and ideas. McGraw and colleagues travelled to five cities, where they lectured on modern surgical technology, especially arthroplasty, arthroscopy, and tumour management. In return, Chinese surgeons demonstrated their expertise in replantation, particularly in hands, fingers, and thumbs in adults and children.

“I was so impressed at how meticulous these surgeons were,” recalls McGraw. “Replantation is a highly technical procedure, and we were in awe of their skills in that regard.”

International exchange, and the relationships between Canada and the United States in particular, have been an important aspect of McGraw’s experience in orthopaedics.

“I really cherished that connection between Canada, the AOA, and our partners abroad,” said Dr. McGraw. “For many years, we had a productive relationship.”

Reinventing orthopaedics for a new era

Orthopaedics focuses on the neuromusculoskeletal system, as do the non-surgical disciplines, including rheumatology, neurology, paediatrics, and rehabilitation sciences. Surgery is not the exclusive focus of orthopaedics, and research plays a vital role in advancing the field.

With a broad focus as its foundation, UBC Orthopaedics began its journey toward departmental status, demonstrating the leadership’s determination. To encourage growth while avoiding fragmentation, Drs Morton and McGraw advocated for embracing subspecialties and forming divisions.

In the early 1980s, McGraw and Morton continued their efforts by summarizing their proposal in The Case for a Department of Orthopaedics. They argued that the broad scope of orthopaedics met the UBC Senate’s requirements for Departmental status. To support their case, they outlined a departmental plan with Divisions of Spine, Foot and Ankle, Orthopaedic Trauma, General Orthopaedics, Musculoskeletal Oncology, Orthopaedic Engineering Research, Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery, Adult Reconstructive Orthopaedics, and Athletic Injuries and Arthroscopic Surgery.

Despite these thorough preparations, the Dean of Medicine fiercely opposed the proposal; nevertheless, the UBC Senate gave its unreserved approval, fully endorsing the proposed name and divisions.

After gaining Senate approval, the Department—now independent from surgery—began an international leadership recruitment, appointing Dr McGraw as its inaugural Head. From 1984 to 1995, he led the fledgling department. Today, UBC’s Department of Orthopaedics remains the only one of its kind among Canada’s 17 medical schools.

“In my view, the two features that permeate all sites and Divisions is quality and pride,” said Dr. McGraw. “In our high-pressure modern healthcare environment, these precious qualities shine through in what I think of fondly as our orthopaedic family.”

Expanding opportunities for training

The year that Dr. McGraw spent at UWO in London, Ontario he also met Dr. Paul Wright, who was there completing his own training. In the early years of orthopaedic education in British Columbia, residents primarily trained at Vancouver General Hospital. By the time Dr. Wright was working in BC, he was stationed at Burnaby General Hospital, which was “outside” the traditional academic environment.

Seeing an opportunity to expand access to training and bring fresh perspectives into the department, Dr. McGraw recruited Wright as a clinical instructor, securing a faculty appointment at UBC so he could train and support residents at another community hospital. The expansion of orthopaedic surgical services and the increase in patient need meant there was now a shortage of beds and space to perform surgeries. For UBC Orthopaedics to grow and effectively serve patients, it needed to expand and make additional spaces for residents across the province.

“It’s been 40 years since Bob—and to me, he has always been Bob—and I got to know each other, and from our time with the Canadian Orthopaedic Association to our RODEO (Retired Ortho Doctors Eating Out) semi-annual dinners, we have been great friends,” said Dr. Wright. Dr. Wright would later join the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre in his UBC role as Clinical Associate Professor, where he shared an office with Dr. Pat McConkey.

“Bob has always been a lynchpin for the orthopaedics community,” said Dr. Wright.

Orthopaedic Update

In 1970, Dr. Patterson wanted to inspire residents to dive into research.

“Sir, the universal persuader is money,” McGraw said.

Building on this, McGraw suggested a competition where residents could find a UBC faculty sponsor and submit a research topic for approval. The competition would have a dedicated day, guest judges who would give a lecture, and monetary prizes. All faculty would be encouraged to attend. McGraw wanted to call it “Patterson Day,” after a similar event at the University of Western Ontario called “McLachlin Day” for Dr. Angus McLachlin, Professor of Surgery at UWO from 1945 to 1974. Patterson rejected the name and told McGraw to organize everything while he secured the money. Patterson, a master of persuasion, secured funds from the Workers’ Compensation Board, and thus Orthopaedic Update (“Ortho Update”) was born.

As a result of these efforts, Ortho Update has evolved into a multi-day accredited professional event. It draws high-profile speakers from across North America and features eponymous lectures honouring Drs. Patterson, Morton, McGraw, and Duncan.

Hip-Hip Hooray!

With a talent for connecting and influencing people, Dr. McGraw established Hip Hip Hooray!, an annual fundraising walk inspired by the British Orthopaedic Association’s Wishbone Walk. The fundraiser, which was later adopted by the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation, ran annually from 1992–2008. 

In Canada, 16 per cent of the population lives with some form of arthritis, and joint replacement surgery is commonly performed to treat osteoarthritis. With rising patient needs and limited care space, Hip Hip Hooray! was an effective fundraising and awareness-building tool, bringing much-needed legislative attention to the urgency of expanding arthroplasty access in BC.

“The most significant effect of our campaign was bringing publicity to patients waiting for surgeries,” said Dr. McGraw. “To this day, protected operating time and dedicated beds at UBC Hospital are available exclusively for arthroplasty and related procedures.”

The event had star power, including an endorsement from McGraw’s orthopaedic patient, singer and television host “Our Pet” Juliette Cavazzi.

McGraw’s next act

Dr McGraw was a committed technical surgeon until his last surgery, one rainy evening on June 30, 2000. UBC and VGH had policies requiring mandatory retirement for medical staff and faculty at age 65. These policies had been challenged in court, but in separate trials, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld them, confirming the institutions’ authority to set retirement-age limits.

In 2007, then Attorney General Wally Oppal introduced Bill 31 to amend the province’s Human Rights Code and to end mandatory retirement. However, the move was not retroactive.

Reflecting on his career, Dr. McGraw shared, “I always had passion and a sense of belonging in orthopaedics. The feedback from happy patients and successful students is indelible, even in advanced age.”

After his forced retirement at 65, Dr. McGraw continued private practice, guiding patients through non-operative consulting. He also pursued research, collaborating with engineers to develop and patent the Spider, a pre-robotic limb manipulator for shoulder and hip surgery.

Throughout his orthopaedic career, Dr. McGraw developed expertise and maintained an interest in medico-legal matters, which he introduced into the resident curriculum. With support from Christopher Hinkson, Esq., a UBC law professor who would later become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the program introduced residents to issues in injury reporting and orthopaedic malpractice. It also exposed them to mock trials to address knowledge gaps that could lead to legal implications for surgeons. At Ortho Update, McGraw and colleagues led seminars on roles within the legal system, surgeons’ responsibilities under the law, and potential liabilities in patient care.

“At first, everyone was kind of laughing and not taking it too seriously,” said McGraw of the mock trials. “In the end, after being grilled by trial lawyers and hectored by judges and prosecutors, they saw the value in medical-legal education, and I’m proud to say that exposure to legal principles in healthcare practice has become a part of residency education.”