Five states — Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Washington and South Carolina — are the most underserved when it comes to orthopedic care, with fewer than three orthopedic surgeons per every 100,000 residents.
Here is a breakdown of some of the orthopedic activity in the five most underserved states since the beginning of the year:
Idaho
1. St. Luke's Health System entered the final stages of construction on the Boise, Idaho-based Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, which was originally set to open in 2020.
2. Nampa, Idaho-based Saltzer Health is opening a new spine clinic to give patients access to all types of spine care under one roof.
3. Northwest Specialty Hospital has broken ground on an orthopedic and spine-focused ASC in Post Falls, Idaho.
4. North Canyon Medical Center in Gooding, Idaho, added Globus Medical's robotic spinal surgery navigation system, Excelsius GPS.
5. Idaho State University Athletics and Portneuf Medical Center, both in Pocatello, have partnered for sports medicine.
Illinois
1. Rockford-based OrthoIllinois completed the new OrthoIllinois Surgery Center in Elgin.
2. Urbana-based Carle Illinois College of Medicine students partnered with the Perry Initiative, a national group focused on inspiring women to join orthopedic surgery.
3. Fox Valley Orthopedics in Geneva, Ill., named Lauren Matteini, MD, and Shobhit Minhas, MD, as partners in the practice.
4. Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., appointed Jeffrey Goldstein, MD, as its new chair of the department of orthopedic surgery.
5. Two of Illinois' largest orthopedic practices, Chicago-based Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush and Rockford-based OrthoIllinois, aggregated to form OrthoMidwest.
Georgia
1. Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Summit Spine & Joint Centers opened a new pain management clinic in Newnan, Ga.
2. Jason Bowman, MD, joined Summit Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Surgery, part of Southeast Georgia Health System.
3. Hamilton Healthcare System and Hamilton-Associates in Orthopedics & Sports Medicine opened a new orthopedic surgery center in Dalton, Ga.
4. Newnan-based Georgia Bone and Joint partnered with Fayetteville, Ga.-based Sutton Orthopedics.
5. Physician-owned orthopedic specialty and critical access hospital Optim Medical Center-Tattnall (Ga.) broke ground on two projects in Reidsville, Ga.
Washington
1. Sunnyside, Wash.-based Astria Health has added Zachary Tan, MD, to its team of orthopedic surgeons.
2. Richard Bransford, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Washington's Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, completed the first successful in-human spine surgery using Proprio's Paradigm surgical technology platform.
3. Centralia-based Washington Orthopaedic Center, founded in 1973 by Larry Hull, MD, celebrated its 50th anniversary.
4. Two orthopedic surgeons at Kirkland, Wash.-based EvergreenHealth became the first in the state to offer the BEAR implant for torn ACL treatment.
5. Spokane, Wash.-based Shriners Children's opened a pediatric orthopedic outreach clinic in Yakima, Wash.
South Carolina
1. Peter Ramsey, MD, a surgeon at OrthoSC in Myrtle Beach, completed the first artificial intelligence-assisted hip replacement using the OrthoGrid system.
2. Christopher Battista, MD, of Lowcountry Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Summerville, S.C., performed the state's first surgery using a 3D-printed custom implant.