A Legacy of Precision and Purpose: Dr. David Polly Reflects on a Career in Spine Surgery
For anyone who's crossed paths with Dr. David Polly Jr.,it doesn’t take long to realize he understands the human spine with a level of precision and passion that few can match. His career as a renowned spine surgeon and educator at the University of Minnesota Department of Orthopedic Surgery has left a lasting impact on patients, colleagues, and the broader field of orthopedics.
But what might surprise even those closest to him is that specializing in spine wasn’t always part of the plan.
In fact, early in his medical career, Polly was certain he’d pursue a career in sports medicine. A six-week rotation with Dr. John Feagin Jr., a respected sports medicine physician and longtime U.S. Ski Team doctor, cemented that ambition. Feagin also happened to be a former West Point classmate of Polly’s father, David Polly Sr., which only deepened the personal connection and sense of purpose Polly felt toward the specialty.
Yet, during his orthopedic surgery residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, something shifted. Polly found himself increasingly drawn to the spine— its intricate anatomy, the precision required to treat it, and the transformative outcomes that spine surgery could offer. Further interest and inspiration came from Dr. Bruce Van Dam, the first Army physician to complete a spine surgery fellowship (which happened to be in Minnesota — more on that later).
As fate would have it, following the completion of his residency and subsequent spine fellowship, Walter Reed was looking to fill a faculty position in spine surgery. Polly rose to the occasion, and in doing so, stepped into what would become his life’s work.
A Military Foundation
Polly’s path to medicine was shaped as much by discipline and duty as it was by academic pursuit—values instilled early in life. His father served in the Army Corps of Engineers and worked for decades as a radar design engineer. Due to his father’s military station, Polly was born overseas in Germany and spent the first two years of his life abroad.
Back in the United States, Polly enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, just like his father. There, he also completed Army Airborne School—a rigorous training that, quite literally, taught him how to take leaps under pressure.
“I learned how to jump out of airplanes,” Polly smiles.
While many assume that the intensity of spine surgery must be the most demanding thing he’s ever done, Polly is quick to challenge that notion.
“I went on to Army Ranger School, which is the toughest thing I have ever done in my life. By far.”
A Defining Year
After completing residency training, Polly set his sights on the next step in his training: a spine fellowship. Guided by the influence of his mentors and his growing passion for spine surgery, Polly arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1991 to begin what would become a
transformative year in his career—and the start of a long-standing relationship with Minnesota.
“At the time, the University of Minnesota had the best spine surgery training program in the world,” Polly recalls. “Minnesota was the first place in the world to do a spine fellowship, and that was in 1972. It was also the number one spine program in the world for scoliosis, mainly because of the founding department chair, Dr. John Moe.”
His primary mentor and teacher during fellowship was Dr. James Ogilvie, whose influence left a lasting mark on Polly’s approach to patient care and professional development.
“There were other faculty that were a part of my fellowship training,” Polly notes, “but he [Ogilvie] was the one who I really patterned my practice after and who was most influential.”
A Return to Minnesota
Following his spine fellowship, Polly returned to familiar ground at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was named Chief of Spine Surgery, a role he held for a decade, and later served as Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation in 2002–03.
“I never expected to come back to Minnesota,” Polly admits.
But fate—and a phone call—had other plans. As his mentor Dr. James Ogilvie prepared for retirement, he reached out to Polly with a proposition that couldn’t be ignored.
“I got a phone call from him essentially saying, ‘Come, take my job now, or it forever goes away.’”
The invitation was weighty, and despite Polly’s deep ties to Walter Reed, the opportunity to carry on the legacy of the program that helped shape his own career proved too meaningful to pass up.
While Polly had trained in Minnesota, he never quite adapted to the state’s infamous winters. The Halloween Blizzard of 1991 still stands out in his memory—an initiation, of sorts, into the extremes of Midwestern weather.
“I walked out of the operating room on Halloween in my penny loafers to 18 inches of snow on the ground,” he recalls. “I had just made an appointment to get my car winterized the first weekend in November. I figured I was safe! I just started laughing and thought
to myself, I’m glad I’m not gonna have to spend another winter here.”
And yet, more than a decade later, he returned—this time for good. In 2003, Polly accepted a faculty position at the University of Minnesota and stepped into the role of Chief of Spine Surgery. Perhaps most importantly, he was also prepared to keep a snow shovel in his car from October through April.
A Mindset for Discovery
Polly’s interest in research dates back to his days in medical school and continued into residency and as faculty at Walter Reed, where he contributed to advancements in the biomechanics of thoracic pedicle screws and in transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion operations.
It wasn’t until he returned to Minnesota as a faculty member that his passion for investigative research truly accelerated.
“Taking on unsolved problems and trying to find out better answers is what has been a big part of my career,” he reflects.
For Polly, research is more than just a professional obligation—it’s a mindset. He sums up his approach with three simple but powerful questions: “What are we doing? What are the results? What can we do better?” These guiding principles form the backbone of his continuous improvement strategy, one that has defined his career and informed his contributions to both patient care and academic research.
A Legacy of Contributions
Polly’s contributions to spine research are as expansive as they are influential. According to Manifold, the University of Minnesota Medical School’s scholarship metrics initiative, as of April 2025, Polly has authored 304 publications, garnered more than 15,000 citations, and achieved an impressive h-index of 65—a reflection of both the breadth and enduring impact of his work.
Among his most widely recognized publications is the 2007 article “Understanding the minimum clinically important difference,” published in the Spine Journal, which alone has been cited nearly 1,300 times. The paper has helped physicians and researchers across the globe better understand how to interpret meaningful change in patient-reported outcomes.
Yet when asked which research holds the most significance to him, Polly doesn’t point to the most cited or most widely recognized—he points to the work he did alongside fellow faculty member Dr. Jonathan Sembrano that’s helped shift clinical perspective.
“The most important research I’ve published while at the University of Minnesota is the work on ‘How often is low back pain not coming from the back?’” Polly explains.
The findings have served as a critical reminder to clinicians that accurate diagnosis often requires looking beyond the obvious.
A Team Effort
When he first arrived, the spine research landscape was relatively sparse at the University of Minnesota. But over the years, that reality began to shift — and in more recent times, a generous donation from a grateful patient helped accelerate that change.
Thanks to a $500,000 gift, Polly was able to assemble a dedicated team of research fellows to expand and support spine research efforts within the department. The opportunity to grow this team has been one of Polly’s proudest recent achievements, ensuring that spine care research continues to be explored well beyond his tenure.
One key hire, Kari Odland, has been especially meaningful to Polly. Her work has helped shape the direction and output of the team, providing the kind of steady follow-through that research demands.
Reflecting on their collaboration, Polly puts it plainly: “I’m a good starting pitcher. I’m good for about six innings in terms of research ideas. But I’m a horrible closer, and Kari is a closer. She’s done a really great job.”
A Challenge & Opportunity
One of the most defining — and challenging — moments in Polly’s career came in 2006, when the longstanding contractual partnership between the Twin Cities Spine Center and the University of Minnesota came to an end. For Polly, the dissolution of the partnership deeply impacted him.
“I went from having 10 partners to having none.”
The dissolution left Polly with the daunting task of rebuilding the University’s spine service from the ground up — a period he describes candidly as “rough waters.” Despite the uncertainty and the weight of starting over, Polly’s efforts, along with those of a growing team, helped stabilize and eventually strengthen the department.
Today, Polly says he’s proud of the spine program’s resilience and the team’s ongoing commitment to pursuing excellence.
The separation from the Twin Cities Spine Center also brought another significant loss: the cessation of the collaborative Spine Fellowship Program with the University, the very program that had shaped Polly’s own career two decades earlier.
“If I look back on my career, one thing I would have done differently is I would have started a spine fellowship back up at the University sooner after the separation,” he says.
Polly eventually relaunched the University’s Spine Fellowship Program in 2013 and served as its Program Director for more than a decade, bringing the same mentorship to future spine surgeons that had once shaped his own path.
A Moment of Reflection
For many years, Polly provided care for patients at the Twin Cities Shriners Hospital, among other sites. He always found great fulfillment in treating children, many of whom presented significant technical challenges. This work kept him closely connected to the pediatric scoliosis field and made him a valued member of the Masonic Children’s Hospital team.
Now, as he steps into retirement, his plans are relatively simple. At the top of the list? A little more rest and a lot more time with his wife.
“She’s been incredibly tolerant of the work and the lifestyle that I’ve lived for a long time, and so the goal is to spend more time with her,” Polly says with a smile.
With his characteristic sense of humor, he adds, “I like the line that goes — ‘I married you for better or for worse, not for lunch.’ Hopefully that’ll keep me out of trouble.”
Though he looks forward to the slower pace, Polly also reflects on the deep sense of purpose his career has brought him.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to take care of so many great patients over the years and work with an amazing team that I will miss,” he says.
As a teacher and mentor, Polly hopes the lessons he’s learned through decades of patient care will continue to ripple outward.
“I’ve tried my best to share lessons learned with my colleagues, so that other patients don’t have to pay the price for the lessons that I learned.”
As he steps into this new chapter, Polly leaves behind not only a legacy of clinical excellence but also a deep well of wisdom, generosity, and integrity that has shaped both the field of spine surgery, patient outcomes, and the people lucky enough to work alongside him.
