Ali Oliashirazi, M.D.

Professor, Chair & Residency Program Director, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

By Maggie Hatfield

It is said the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Ali Oliashirazi, M.D., professor, chair and residency program director of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, believes to his core that this is what he was meant to do with his life.

Oliashirazi received his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Riverside and attended medical school at George Washington University, where he graduated class valedictorian. Once he found his passion, he completed his training in orthopaedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

“My passion is joint replacement surgery, with knee replacement surgeries being my most favorite operation to perform,” he says. “There are very few professions in life that allow an individual to mix technical skills and intellectual challenge with kindness and compassion.”

Since arriving in West Virginia 19 years ago, Oliashirazi has made great strides in caring for and educating Mountain State residents. He founded the orthopaedic surgery department at Marshall University in 2004 and was instrumental in the creation of the school’s orthopaedic surgery residency program.

“The biggest challenge was paving an uncharted path for the school and the Huntington community to develop an academic orthopaedic group,” he says. “This was during a time when orthopaedic surgeons were leaving our state and it was very difficult to recruit, so we decided to start our own training program to grow our own.”

The effort to grow the department and launch a residency program included a tall order—recruiting excellent surgeons who were also excellent teachers. Despite the uphill battle, Marshall’s orthopaedic surgery residency program was the first of its kind to gain approval in over a decade and received accreditation on its first attempt. Today, the university has every orthopaedic subspecialty represented, including the ones most difficult to find: pediatric orthopaedics, orthopaedic spine surgeons and orthopaedic oncologists. In 2019-2020, Marshall’s program was ranked in the 97th percentile nationwide.

“We have residents who originate from all over the country, including California, New York and Florida, and 41% have stayed in one of our institutions in the tri-state after they finished their training,” says Oliashirazi.

Today, Oliashirazi’s primary job is to set the strategy of the department and develop its architecture, which includes recruitment and retainment.

“Simply put, our goal is to be the best at all that we do,” he says. “The best part of my position is making sure the right individuals are in the right positions and helping everyone advance and succeed to meet their own individual career goals.”

When he’s not teaching or performing surgery, Oliashirazi can be found at Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Joint Replacement Center—where he has served as director for more than 15 years—furthering his impact on West Virginians through technological advances.

“We are one of the most technologically advanced programs and one of the first in the country and the world to do computer-assisted orthopaedic surgeries and robotic orthopaedic surgeries,” he says.

Oliashirazi believes he owes much of his success to his mother, who showed him the true meaning of kindness and grit.

“We moved to the U.S. from Iran when I was 11 years old,” he says. “Despite not knowing the language and hitting some challenges, she was able to get back on her feet. I think the compassion, hard work and grit I learned from her have helped propel me through challenges over the course of my life.”

Of his many accolades, there is one that changed the trajectory of Oliashirazi’s life.

“There is a framed report card in my study from eighth grade—the year I moved to the U.S. I did not speak English,” he says. “I used to regularly stay up well past midnight, translating words and phrases with my English-to-Persian dictionary so I could piecemeal the information together. I started with Cs and Fs and ended the last quarter with all As on that report card.”

Oliashirazi and his family feel blessed to call Huntington, WV, home.

“West Virginia gave us a home and an opportunity to make a difference and leave the world a little better than we found it,” he says. “The genuine, heartfelt and deep support are unparalleled. I tell everyone our community is magical, and I cannot imagine a kinder, more compassionate place.”