You're invited to attend the inaugural Ty Tuggle, MD Lectureship in Hand Surgery presented by the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at LSU Health New Orleans.

Date: September 18th, 2025

Time: 7am CST

Place: Human Development Center - Room 130 (This lecture will also be available via zoom)

Speaker: James P. Higgins, MD

Dr. Higgins serves as the fourth chief in the 70+ year history of the Curtis National Hand Center in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Dr. Higgins completed his undergraduate work at Williams College in Massachusetts, his medical school training at the University of Rochester, and his plastic surgical training at the University of Rochester. He then completed a hand surgery fellowship at the Curtis National Hand Center in 2002 and became a faculty member. In 2011 he began his tenure as Chief of the Hand Center.  

His clinical and research interests include vascularized bone/cartilage reconstruction of extremity nonunions, functioning muscle reconstruction of the upper limb, toe transfer digital reconstruction, complex reconstruction of upper extremity trauma and vaso-occlusive disease of the hand.

Dr. Higgins is an active member of multiple professional societies, serving on executive council and administrative committees for the ASSH, AAHS, ASRM, & ABPS.  He has served as program chairman of the national meetings of the ASRM (2013) and ASSH (2019). He is currently Vice President of the ASRM.

Dr Higgins has also been granted travelling fellowships by national societies including:

• The 2010 Marco Godina Traveling Fellow by the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM)
• 2010 Dr Higgins travelling Visiting Professor for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH)
• The 2013-2014 Sterling Bunnell Traveling fellow for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH).
• The 2024 Zamboni Travelling Professor for the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM)

 Dr. Higgins dedicated these years to the subject of microsurgical reconstructive of upper extremity traumatic injuries with a focus on vascularized bone and cartilage transfer. 

As Chief, Dr. Higgins directs the Curtis National Hand Center’s civilian hand fellowship, but also serves as the site director of the joint Walter Reed/Curtis Hand military fellowship that has provided hand surgery training for the US Army hand surgeons since the 1960’s.  He also serves as a team leader for the collaborative hand transplantation program with the Department of Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The family of Dr. Tuggle thanks you for your show of support to the Ty Tuggle, MD Hand Surgery Lectureship