About Leon Benson, MD

Dr. Leon S. Benson began his medical career in Evanston, Illinois, the town where he was born and raised. After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, he continued as a chemistry major at Northwestern University. In 1981, he began medical school at Northwestern University in downtown Chicago and completed a five-year residency in orthopedic surgery at Northwestern before pursuing an extra year of specialty training in hand and upper extremity surgery at Harvard. Dr. Benson returned from Boston in 1991 and has practiced with the same orthopedic group ever since. He is currently Chief of the Division of Hand Surgery at NorthShore University HealthSystem, which is a four-hospital system in the northern Chicago suburbs and includes a physician staff of over 2,400 doctors. NorthShore also serves as the northern teaching campus for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Benson holds an appointment as senior attending within the NorthShore system and is currently president of the NorthShore Professional Staff.

He has additionally been active in clinical research relating to hand surgery. His scholarly production includes more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, a single-authored text on teaching orthopedics, ten book chapters, and more than 40 scientific presentations to national audiences. Dr. Benson also serves as an associate editor for The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American Volume), and he writes a regular column for a national hand surgery newsletter. Dr. Benson does academic consulting work for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery by writing questions for the national certifying examination in orthopedic surgery as well as for the certifying examination in hand surgery. He currently holds the rank of Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Dr. Benson spends much of his free time training his Portuguese Water Dog, Cruise. In addition to training his owner, Cruise participates in the sports of dog agility, obedience, water work, lure-coursing, and also works in the clinical setting as a certified therapy dog.