Harold M. Frost (1921 – 19 June 2004) was an American orthopedist and surgeon considered to be one of the most important researchers and theorists in the field of

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

biology and bone medicine of his time.Turner C, Burr D, Jee WS, Smith S, Recker RR, Axelrod DW, Takahashi HE, Villanueva AR, High WB, Martin RB, Parfitt AM: ''Tribute to Harold M. Frost M.D.'', ''J Musculoskel Neuron Interact'' 2004; 4(4):348-356, Jee WS: ''Harold M. Frost, M.D., D.Sc. (hon) - one man's association'', ''J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact.'' 2006 Apr-Jun;6(2):113-21, He published nearly 500 peer-reviewed scientific and clinical articles and 16 books. According to the

Science Citation Index The Science Citation Index Expanded – previously entitled Science Citation Index – is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield. It was officially launched in 1964 and ...

, he is one of the most cited investigators in skeletal research.

Life

He received his medical degree from

Geisel School of Medicine The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is o ...

and

Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree p ...

in 1945. He then did his surgical internship in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. During this time he was Officer in the Naval Medical Corps from 1946 to 1948. He then did his residency in Orthopedic Surgery in Buffalo General and Children's Hospital in New York state from 1948 to 1953. In 1955, he became an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

. Frost moved to Detroit to take a position at

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hos ...

. There he became the founder and Director of the Orthopedic Research Laboratory. He remained the director until 1973, having served as chairman of the department from 1966 until 1972. During his time at the

, Frost made many breakthroughs, which changed the paradigm of bone biology. Frost moved to

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...

in 1973 — drawn by the mountains, climate, and lifestyle — bringing with him his international reputation as a dogged researcher, talented orthopaedist and prolific author. While there he continued his active participation at the Sun Valley Workshops where he interacted with participants to develop cancellous bone histomorphomety (1977), generate and refine the mechanostat hypothesis (1987), and the ever-evolving Utah Paradigm of Bone Physiology (1997).

Academic contributions

Dr. Harold M. Frost's main academic inputs include: * Development of Bone Histo

morphometry Morphometrics (from Greek μορϕή ''morphe'', "shape, form", and -μετρία ''metria'', "measurement") or morphometry refers to the quantitative analysis of ''form'', a concept that encompasses size and shape. Morphometric analyses are c ...

for description of cellular based

bone formation Ossification (also called osteogenesis or bone mineralization) in bone remodeling is the process of laying down new bone material by cells named osteoblasts. It is synonymous with bone tissue formation. There are two processes resulting in th ...

and

Bone resorption Bone resorption is resorption of bone tissue, that is, the process by which osteoclasts break down the tissue in bones and release the minerals, resulting in a transfer of calcium from bone tissue to the blood. The osteoclasts are multi-nuclea ...

processes * the eleventh rip

Biopsy A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a dise ...

used for diagnosis of metabolic Bone diseases * Research on the multi-cellular unit as a key to bone metabolism * the experimental proof that

Estrogen Estrogen or oestrogen is a category of sex hormone responsible for the development and regulation of the female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics. There are three major endogenous estrogens that have estrogenic hormonal ac ...

reduces bone formation * the histological proof of micro-damages in human bone biopsies * the basic model of the adaptation of the

Growth plate The epiphyseal plate (or epiphysial plate, physis, or growth plate) is a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone. It is the part of a long bone where new bone growth takes place; that is, the whole bone is alive, wit ...

to mechanical

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

* the Utah-Paradigm of Bone physiology (

Mechanostat The Mechanostat is a term describing the way in which mechanical loading influences bone structure by changing the mass (amount of bone) and architecture (its arrangement) to provide a structure that resists habitual loads with an economical amount ...

-Theorem), an enhancement of

Wolff's law Wolff's law, developed by the German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff (1836–1902) in the 19th century, states that bone in a healthy animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. If loading on a particular bone increases, the bon ...

stating that Bone adapts to mechanical stress and that hence there is a close link between muscle and

Books

*''Bone remodelling dynamics'', The Henry Ford Hospital surgical monographs, Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1963 *''The laws of bone structure'', The Henry Ford Hospital surgical monographs, Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1964 *''Mathematical Elements of Lamellar Bone Remodelling'', The Henry Ford Hospital surgical monographs, Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1964 *''Bone biodynamics'', Henry Ford Hospital international symposium, 4 Little, Brown (Boston) 1964 *''The bone dynamics in osteoporosis and osteomalacia'', The Henry Ford Hospital surgical monographs, Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1966 *''An introduction to biomechanics'', Surgical monographs, Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1967, 0398028249 *''Orthopaedic surgery in spasticity (Orthopaedic lectures Vol. 1)'', Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1972 *''The physiology of cartilaginous, fibrous, and bony tissue (Orthopaedic lectures Vol. 2)'', Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1972, *''Bone remodeling and its relationship to metabolic bone diseases (Orthopaedic lectures Vol. 3)'', Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1973, *''Bone modeling and skeletal modeling errors (Orthopaedic lectures Vol. 4)'', Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1973, *''Orthopaedic Biomechanics (Orthopaedic Lectures Vol. 5)'', Thomas (Springfield, Ill.), 1973, *''Symposium on the Osteoporoses Part 1: Physioplogy, Pathophysiology, and Diagnosis'', Saunders (Philadelphia), 1981 *''Symposium on the Osteoporoses Part 2: Therapy and Prevention'', Saunders (Philadelphia), 1981 *''Intermediary organization of the skeleton'', CRC Press (Boca Raton, Fla), 1986, *''Bone in clinical orthopedics - Chapter 14: Determinants of bone strength and mass: a summary and clinical implications'' by Geoff Sumner-Smith, Georg Thieme Verlag, 2002,

*''The Utah Paradigm of Skeletal Physiology Vol. 1'', ISMNI *''The Utah Paradigm of Skeletal Physiology Vol. 2'', ISMNI

References

External links

Tribute to Harold Frost in ''Journal of Musculoskeletal Neuronal Interactions'', 4(4), 2004, 348-356Harold M. Frost, M.D., D.Sc. (hon) – One man’s association in ''Journal of Musculoskeletal Neuronal Interactions'', 6(2), 2006Harold M Frost William F. Neuman Awardee 2001 in ''Journal of Musculoskeletal Neuronal Interactions'', 2(2), 2001, 117-119ASBMR Harold M. Frost Young Investigator AwardISMNI
- International Society of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions
Sun Valley Workshops
- IBMS Annual Sun Valley Workshops {{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, Harold American orthopedic surgeons Histologists 1921 births 2004 deaths United States Navy Medical Corps officers Dartmouth College alumni