Dr. Harry E. Jergesen's interests include reconstructive surgery and hip and knee replacement. His research has focused on osteonecrosis (death of bone tissue) of the hip and on stimulating bone growth in the body (osteoinduction) by demineralized bone matrix.
Jergesen graduated from Harvard College in 1968 and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1972. He completed two years of general surgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a residency in orthopedic surgery in the Combined Harvard Orthopedic Residency Program. He was chief resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. In 1978, he was appointed assistant director of Rehabilitation Engineering Research and Development at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he served as chief of Orthopedic Surgery from 1998 to 2007. In addition to his prior work at the Veterans Hospital, Dr. Jergesen served as an attending arthroplasty surgeon at UCSF until February of 2013. He also specialized in surgery of the hip and knee at San Francisco General Hospital until his retirement in December of 2015.
Since 2004, a major focus in Dr. Jergesen's clinical work has been in the area of overseas healthcare. Besides working in Central and South America, he traveled yearly to provide clinical care and perform public health research at the Bedford Orthopaedic Hospital in Mthatha, South Africa. He has been active in the orthopaedic section of the UCSF Global Health Sciences Program, and has served on the Board of Directors of Orthopaedics Overseas. His current area of concentration is in arthroplasty care in US safety net hospitals.