My priority is to provide a truly outstanding experience for each patient.
I am a sports medicine surgeon, sub-specializing in injuries of the knee, shoulder and elbow. I treat all types of athletes: professionals, collegiate, high school and recreational. I am currently a team physician for Duke football, Duke men's and women's lacrosse, Duke men's and women's tennis, Duke swimming and Duke softball. My practice focuses primarily on minimally invasive arthroscopic and reconstructive techniques for the knee, shoulder and elbow that restore joint function in young athletic individuals. I have particular expertise and interest in the treatment of the pediatric athlete, including ACL reconstruction in growing athletes, shoulder instability in adolescents, and cartilage repair and transplantation. My priority is to provide a truly outstanding experience for each patient. My practice therefore focuses on accessibility, convenience, and a friendly atmosphere where you will be treated like family. I believe in a shared decision-making model, where your treatment is chosen based on your individual or family goals. I take great pride in working at Duke; where I am able to translate cutting edge research and experience treating elite athletes into better outcomes for all of my patients.
As an academic physician at Duke, I am able to stay at the cutting edge of sports medicine science. I run both a basic science laboratory and a clinical research enterprise, all with the focus of improving our care of patients with sports injuries. In the lab, I study cartilage - specifically how it heals (or doesn't). Understanding cartilage healing could improve the way we treat sports injuries, but also osteoarthritis, a common condition that causes significant pain and dysfunction. We use animal and bench top models of cartilage injury, and are particularly interested in the remarkable healing potential in the young. Another focus of my lab is the study of "biologics" - products derived from our own tissues that can be used to improve healing or treat disease (PRP, stem cells, amniotic products, etc.). As these products gain clinical popularity, I am committed to understanding how they work at the most fundamental level, so that they can be applied safely and effectively to human disease. My clinical research efforts focus on rehabilitation and injury prevention after ACL surgery in children. Almost 1 in 3 children who have an ACL reconstruction will suffer another tear during childhood, and I am committed to designing new rehab strategies and tools for return to play decisions to minimize these risks.