Right THA · 9 October 2015
Scripps Green. Richard H. Walker MD. Staff lists name conventional Stryker / Biolox parts. The 2015 packet that arrived in April is conversion paper, not a 2015 printout.
Section 05a
Hardware and surgeries
Dates, hospital, surgeon, and the parts list as charted. Who is Richard Walker. Ten Irvine views, then two Scripps stills.
Documented
1 · What was put in him
Dates, hospital, surgeon, and the parts list as charted. That is why a hip implant is in this file at all. A 2015 operative packet — generated 23 April after the 24 February UPLOAD ask, bannered as a converted historical result — sits as one cover on the hospital file. Tray stickers were not in that mailing. A parts list is not a finding that nothing else was present.
Left THA · 23 October 2017
Same hospital, same surgeon. On 27 August 2015 a pelvis MRI printed no signal abnormality in that hip. On 21 April 2017 a clinic note quotes extensive left femoral AVN. The problem list starts osteonecrosis on surgery day. Chart conflict, not a completed experiment.
DocumentedConflict — keep both
1 · Who operated
Who is Richard Walker
The instrumented-THR reviews did not name this surgeon. The 2015 packet names him. The next question is who he is on public paper, and whether that paper even mentions smart orthopedic technology. Click the cover. The hosted bio PDF opens in the side window. The cover itself prints Sees existing patients only. The live page is scripps.org/physicians/5584-richard-walker.
Bio PDF · Papers with D’Lima and Colwell · Colwell · D’Lima
Conflict — keep both
Public listing vs portal
Sees existing patients only — and a 2027 out-of-office banner
The physician-page cover prints Sees existing patients only, with Treats adults and In-person visits only on the same row. He writes that Walker refused to see him since 2023. That since-2023 sentence is his; no 2023 refusal letter is on this file. What is on the shelf: 24 February staff, “Dr. Walker has retired.” 21 April, to Dr. Hong: Walker has retired; although he did take questions, there was no response; the question has been removed; he won’t be back til 2027. 30 April auto-reply: Out of office until 1/29/2027. 26 June, Tanya Greene, RN: “As discussed with Dr. Walker, your implants do not have any electronic components or ‘bio-chips’.” And: “Dr. Walker will not see these or any future messages ou are sending.” On 19 June at 6:17 PM he had texted that Walker called. There is no recording of that call. An invitation to come in for evaluation is his telling, not that still. The June thread. 2 December 2025, at the orthopedic desk: a carrier with a handwritten letter for Richard Walker; staff do not locate an office for that name; a secretary might take it. The desk recordings. The listing, the banners, and the desk belong on the same door. The portal thread.
What the bio prints
Richard Walker, MD. Orthopedic Surgery; Adult Reconstructive Orthopedic Surgery. Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines. Expertise in total hip and knee replacement. Interests, as printed: hip and knee arthritis, minimally invasive surgery, and computer-assisted navigation and pressure sensor applications for total hip and knee replacement. Joined Scripps Clinic in 1983. Board of Scripps Clinic Medical Group for over 25 years; chairman of SCMG surgery for 20 years; vice president of surgery, gynecology and radiology for Scripps Clinic for over 10 years; chief of staff and chairman of surgery at Scripps Green. Most recently, President of Scripps Clinic Medical Group. Team physician, San Diego Padres, over 15 years, including the 1984 and 1998 National League pennant years.
Navigation on the bio is not a radio in the stem
Computer-assisted navigation is a stated interest. The 2015 packet already prints a Stryker navigation set used for cup registration — intra-op, not Bluetooth. Pressure-sensor applications are a stated interest. Neither sentence is a finding that a transmitter sat in these two stems. A public bio is why a reader would keep looking. It is not the implant card.
President of Scripps Clinic Medical Group — the physician group, not Scripps Health
Dated faces: 25 January 2017, Scripps news — “said Richard Walker, MD, president of Scripps Clinic Medical Group.” That is before the 23 October 2017 left THA. 27 August 2018, Patch reprint of a Scripps release — “Dr. Richard Walker, president of the Scripps Clinic Medical Group.” 9 November 2020, Scripps news — “Richard Walker, MD, president and CEO of Scripps Clinic Medical Group.” NPI 1538297726, last update 16 May 2023, still lists Richard H. Walker, M.D., authorized official, title PRESIDENT. Current SCMG leadership lists Joel Diamant, MD, as president; Walker remains on joint-management / revenue-cycle / ACO rows. A 9 October 2015 right THA is not locked as president on these faces. A medical-group presidency is influence on paper. It is not a finding he ran an unauthorized implant program.
Walker, D’Lima, and Colwell on the same hip papers
The co-author line is the face. Walker published hip-arthroplasty outcomes with Darryl D. D’Lima and Clifford W. Colwell Jr. from the 1990s into 2014. Follow-up papers exist that measure years after THA — including a 1997 Harris-Galante series titled as a 4- to 8-year follow-up. That is bibliography. His later calendar, that 2025 sits eight years after 2017, is his. Keep the papers as 1997 and 1999 series. They are not a finding they enrolled him. The 21 October 2014 HSS Journal paper is hosted: cover, click for the PDF. Methods name Trident PSL, Super Secur-Fit Plus, and Biolox — the same Stryker family later listed on this file. Walker declared no conflict of interest. Colwell reports Stryker research support outside the work. The paper does not name which of the five authors was the single surgeon of that 169-patient series. Ceramic liner fracture and impingement, not a smart-hip paper.
The assistant on the 2015 paper — Kenneth J. Schmidt
The 2015 right-THA packet prints Kenneth Schmidt, MDF. Public bios: fellowship in lower-extremity reconstruction at Scripps Clinic La Jolla; later Phoenix; a Stryker surgeon page lists robotic-arm assisted hip and knee. In 2019 he publishes with Colwell on self-reported metal allergy after TKA — not a smart-implant paper. DOI 10.3928/01477447-20190906-01. A 2025 Journal of Arthroplasty title on metal hypersensitivity in TKA but not THA is a different author team (Shankar, Kubsad, Hernandez et al., University of Washington / UC Davis). Do not attribute that 2025 paper to Schmidt.
DocumentedConflict — keep both
1 · 13 Feb 2024 Irvine · then two Scripps stills
One Orange County visit. Ten views. After two replacements, Scripps sent two films.
Click the cover. All ten stills from Dr. Steven Barnett’s 13 February 2024 session at OSI Irvine open in one window. Overlay: Asbaghi Hooman, Pt ID 284505, PELVIS, exam date 2/13/2024. Two screws are visible on one acetabular cup. His WhatsApp: one visit gave him all this.
Below is what Tanya Greene, RN, Clinical Operations Supervisor, Division of Orthopedic Surgery, attached in the portal. Two images. Clock 11:58. Top: Portable X-Table, ASBAGHI HOOMAN-A, a toothed / grit-blasted stem. Bottom: both hips on one film; one stem toothed along the edge, the other smoother. The two protruding screws visible on the 2024 Irvine cup are not seen as screws on these two stills. His reading: the right hip is a different material than the left; an entirely different hip. That reading is his. These are different dates and techniques. The faces do not prove a swapped implant. Written surgery notes he was sent around August 2025 named no embedded devices. Notes are not these films. The 13 August bubble that put those two images in a message sits on the June–August thread. This chapter opens the pair. It is not a second set.