Biography
William B. Kleinman, M.D., is one of the three original founders of the Indiana Hand to Shoulder Center. He has been in the practice of hand and upper extremity surgery at the Indiana Hand to Shoulder Center since the completion of his post-residency fellowship training in 1978. He earned his doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University/New York Hospital in New York City in 1972, then completed a two-year general surgery residency at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver in 1974. He returned to New York City in 1974 to complete a three-year residency training in orthopaedic surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. His formal one-year fellowship training in hand surgery was also completed at Columbia-Presbyterian, under the tutelage of his legendary mentor, Dr. Robert E. Carroll. Dr. Kleinman’s training in microvascular reconstruction followed at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. He moved to Indianapolis from New York City in 1978.
Dr. Kleinman is a full Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Much of his work at the Medical Center during his early career was treating children with hand and upper extremity birth defects and birth palsies at the Riley Children’s Hospital for 15 years.
He has been passionate about teaching throughout his 46-year career. He’s given over 450 formal international, national, and regional lectures on hand and upper extremity reconstruction; has been an invited speaker to societies and institutions 60 times; has published 55 scientific articles in peer-review journals; and has written more than 30 chapters in academic textbooks. He has developed six teaching videotapes for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.
In 1985, Dr. Kleinman received the coveted Sterling Bunnell Traveling Fellowship Award from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and in 2019, the Lee Osterman Award for most outstanding teacher of hand surgery nationally.
In 2022, he was nominated by the ASSH to become a "Pioneer of Hand Surgery", an award given every three years by the International Federation for Societies of Surgery of the Hand.
He has been the keynote speaker for the national ASSH Richard Smith, M.D. Residents’ and Fellows’ Conference, and the invited guest lecturer for the Robert E. Carroll, M.D. Founders’ Lecture of the ASSH in 2021.
Dr. Kleinman is passionate about delivering the highest level of care to his patients. He values above all the doctor-patient relationship, and the quality of services he – and his partners at the Indiana Hand to Shoulder Center - deliver to each of our patients.
Patient Stories
Education
Undergrad
Rutgers University
Medical School
Cornell University Medical College
General Surgery Residency
University of Colorado Affiliated Hospitals
Orthopaedic Surgery Residency
The New York Orthopaedic Hospital (Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center)
Hand Surgery Fellowship
The New York Orthopaedic Hospital (Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center)
Microvascular Surgery Fellowship
Duke University Medical Center