Dr. Hernandez was born and raised in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and attended Easton Area High School. For college, he traveled to upstate New York to attend Cornell University and majored in biology. During his undergraduate years, he took part in basic science and clinical research programs at some of the nation’s top research centers, including The Harvard School of Public Health, UCSF’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, and UCLA’s School of Medicine. Dr. Hernandez graduated from Cornell with honors.
He then attended Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and developed an early interest in orthopedics, specifically in joint replacement. He worked with surgeons in the orthopedic department, researching the use of computers in joint replacement. This work, which was published in the Journal of Arthroplasty, showed that surgeons who use computer navigation in knee replacement achieve better alignment than surgeons who do not.
After graduating from medical school, Dr. Hernandez spent time volunteering in rural hospitals in Colombia, South America, and treated patients with a variety of illnesses.
Returning to New York for his orthopedic surgery residency, Dr. Hernandez chose to attend the State University of New York at Buffalo, as it is the nation’s premier center for CAOS (computer-assisted orthopedic surgery) and the site where the first computer-navigated knee replacement in the United States was performed. During residency, Dr. Hernandez’s research efforts focused on hip arthroscopy, a minimally invasive technique used to treat sports injuries and some degenerative conditions. His work, which explained how to safely repair the hip labrum, was published in Arthroscopy. Dr. Hernandez excelled during his surgical training, and upon graduation, was honored as the recipient of The Chairman’s Award.
