Orthopedic research at McMaster University has grown steadily under the mentorship of CEO’s executive director and founder, Dr. Mohit Bhandari. Under the guidance of Dr. Gordon Guyatt, Dr. Bhandari, with support from Sheila Sprague and others at CEO, initiated the Study to Prospectively Evaluate Reamed Intramedullary Nails in Patients with Tibial Fractures (SPRINT) trial in 1999. The SPRINT trial, which compared reamed versus unreamed intramedullary nails in over 1,200 tibial shaft fracture patients, was conducted at 29 clinical sites in Canada, the USA  and the Netherlands. This landmark trial led a paradigm shift in how orthopedic research is conducted and established a new benchmark for all future clinical research in orthopedic surgery.

Building upon SPRINT, the CEO team initiated several other large multi-centre trials in the field of orthopedic trauma. In recent years, the research focus within CEO expanded from a trauma focus to include multiple other orthopedic disciplines, including sports medicine, oncology and upper extremity care. From its humble beginnings with Dr. Bhandari and one research coordinator, CEO has grown into a team of over 20 faculty members and over 20 research coordinators and tesearch assistants. CEO continues to conduct successful and high-quality research through collaborations with researchers within and outside of McMaster. These partnerships leverage the knowledge and experience of leading researchers around the globe, strengthening our research questions, methodology and knowledge translation.