User:Rlsmithpd/Dr. Thomas Graham

Dr. Thomas Graham ...Thomas James Graham (born June 26, 1962) is an American physician, author, educator, and entrepreneur. As a physician, Graham is well-known as the premiere doctor for the care of the professional athlete’s hand and wrist. He is also a prolific inventor, having been awarded more than three dozen U.S. patents, and a leading innovator in healthcare.

Graham is a pioneer of mission-driven innovation, the commercialization of intellectual property for the purpose of improving and extending human life. He is the first Chief Innovation Officer of Cleveland Clinic, where he also serves as Vice-Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Early Life He was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, in the northern reaches of Appalachia, to Thomas and Marie (neé Pantalone) Graham. His father was an executive in the pottery industry and his mother was a noted educator and elementary school principal.

At the age of eight, he witnessed a broadcast of the early open heart surgeries being performed by noted surgeons. Graham was fascinated not by the sight of the beating heart, but by the masterful motions of the surgeon’s hands. It was at this time, he decided to dedicate his life to the study of Hand Surgery. This inspired him to write to Dr. DeBakey, who responded. The two carried on a four decade relationship until DeBakey’s death in 2008.

Graham attended Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh (class of 1980), then graduated from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with Honors in 1984. At the completion of his undergraduate studies, he served as an exercise physiologist for the United States Olympic Committee. This resulted from his development of concepts to increase metabolic efficiency during exercise and his pioneering work in Phosphorous Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) with Dr. Britton Chance. This work translated to other medical breakthroughs, including management of tourniquets during surgery and storage of amputated tissue prior to replantation.

He received his M.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1988 and completed his Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at the University of Michigan in 1993. He served fellowships in Hand Surgery at the renowned Indiana Hand Center and in Elbow Surgery at Mayo Clinic.

Graham completed the Executive Management Program in Healthcare Administration co-sponsored by Cleveland Clinic and the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in 1997.

Medical Career Graham began his practice at Cleveland Clinic in 1994. He rose to become the Chief of Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery. As a result of his Olympic experience and exposure to the University of Michigan athletes, Graham was able to establish a practice dedicated largely to the care of injuries of the hand and wrist in professional athletes and entertainers.

His other clinical interests include sophisticated elbow surgery, complex reconstruction after trauma and the care of children born with congenital differences of the upper extremity.

In 2000 at the age of 37, he was selected to be the Chief of the Congressionally-designated Curtis National Hand Center in Baltimore, the largest specialty practice of its kind in the world. Graham was also an Associate Professor of both Orthopaedic Surgery and Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins during his tenure in Baltimore, and served as the Vice-Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at Union Memorial Hospital.

While in Baltimore, he established MedStar SportsHealth, the Sports Medicine Division of MedStar Health, the mid-Atlantic’s largest healthcare provider. While Chief of the National Hand Center, he participated directly in the care of the survivors of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, for which he received recognition from survivor organizations and was featured on ABC Nightline and in a film that was part of the 9/11 exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.

In 2006, through collaboration with his longtime friend and patient, Arnold Palmer, Graham established the Arnold Palmer SportsHealth Center and served as its founder and surgeon-in-chief.

After a decade in Baltimore, Graham returned to Cleveland Clinic in 2010 to become the first Chief Innovation Officer and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Although he dedicates a majority of his time to his executive functions as an Officer of Cleveland Clinic, he still maintains a practice dedicated to the care of athletes.

Graham has authored over 100 publications in the scholarly literature and lectured widely around the world. He has served as the editor for the Master Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery: The Hand (Lippencott Williams & Wilkins) Volumes II and III.

He is among the youngest doctors ever chosen for the prestigious publications, Woodward & White's Best Doctors in America, as well as Castle Connolly's America's Top Doctors. He has been perennially featured in Baltimore Magazine and Cleveland Magazine in their “Top Docs” issues.

Professional Sports Dr. Graham has served as a Team Physician or Hand Surgery Consultant for organizations in all four of the major North American team sports (NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA). He also has cared for multiple athletes in golf, tennis and motor sports, as well as elite amateur sportsmen and sportswomen.

He currently serves as a Team Physician for the Cleveland Indians and Hand Surgery Consultant for the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Toronto Blue Jays and as the Senior Orthopaedic Consultant for the Washington Nationals. In addition to these formal relationships, Graham has received referrals from almost every professional team in the U.S. and many overseas organizations.

His former engagements included Medical Director of the Washington Nationals (MLB) and Washington Redskins (NFL) and Team Physician of the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL).

Graham also cares for performers and entertainers. He served as a Trustee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which refers musicians to his practice.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Dr. Graham holds more than three dozen patents for medical devices related to the practice of Orthopaedic Surgery, including those for an artificial elbow, artificial wrist and multiple fracture fixation and joint fusion implants.

He has contributed some of the most successful commercially-available devices in upper extremity surgery, including the Discovery™ Total Elbow, the Evolve™ Radial Head Replacement and the Maestro™ Total Wrist Arthroplasty, all for the Biomet Corporation.

He was a founder of several companies in the medical device and healthcare services sector, including NEXA (sold to Tornier) and MiMedx (MDXG).

Graham is a pioneer of mission-driven innovation, the commercialization of intellectual property from academic medical centers and research universities for the purpose of improving and extending human life. He contributed materially to the development of the concept while at Cleveland Clinic in the 1990’s. Cleveland Clinic Innovations was launched formally in 2000, as he transitioned to Baltimore. He returned to Cleveland Clinic in 2010 to serve as Cleveland Clinic’s inaugural Chief Innovation Officer.

In the community, he serves as the Chairman of the Board for the economic development organization BioEnterprise and Chairs the Executive Advisory Council for the Global Center for Health Innovation, a showplace of healthcare technology and products in downtown Cleveland.

In early 2016 McGraw-Hill is scheduled to publish his book, Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way: Transforming Healthcare by Putting Ideas to Work.

Personal Life Graham is an avid golfer and outdoorsman. He is married to his childhood sweetheart and they have two adult daughters.

He survived a near-death experience when an unusual medical condition threatened his life in 2012. He was hospitalized for six months, during which time he endured 20 operations or major procedures. He recovered and now lectures on the experience of being a patient and the role of medical innovation in saving lives.

Graham credits his survival to the consummate professionalism and ultimate teamwork exhibited by his colleagues at Cleveland Clinic, and promotes the Clinic’s model of care as an optimal one for the care of complex patients.