Thomas Graham, MD, Hand Surgeon for Professional Athletes, to Lead Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute

Thomas Graham, MD, has been named the first Physician in Chief of Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, one of the five health institutes of Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). Dr. Graham is a world-renowned orthopedic hand surgeon, health care executive, author, inventor and entrepreneur who is regarded as an international thought leader in medical innovation. He has served as the hand surgery consultant, team physician or medical director for the PGA Tour and numerous professional teams in the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA. He has cared for more than 2,000 professional athletes.

“With Dr. Graham on our team, Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute will be the premier destination for care of professional athletes’ hands and wrists,” said Michael Rossi, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, LVHN. “For the people of our community, Dr. Graham’s arrival means we have a new physician at LVHN with the expertise and experience to take orthopedic care to new heights.”

“I know what it takes to be a championship organization,” said Dr. Graham. “LVHN and Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute have the culture to care with compassion, the sophistication to elevate outcomes, and the commitment to provide the experience patients deserve. That’s the formula for delivering destination-level care.”

As Physician in Chief, Dr. Graham will lead the development of new programs, services and technology within the Orthopedic Institute while continuing to provide patient care. Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute comprises more than 200 providers at 100 practice and rehabilitation locations. Orthopedic Institute surgeons perform more than 17,000 procedures annually, three times as many joint replacements and twice as many sports medicine procedures than others in the regions LVHN serves.

A master surgeon, Dr. Graham has extensive clinical expertise in surgery of the hand, wrist and elbow, with special concentration on complicated reconstruction after trauma, complex elbow disorders and congenital hand surgery.

Dr. Graham has more than three decades of experience as a physician executive at some of the nation’s largest health care systems. He was a member of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone Health, the nation's largest collection of academic orthopedists, where he served as the Director of Innovation and Strategy. He also was Associate Dean for Enterprise Innovation and co-directed NYU Langone Sports Health. Dr. Graham served as Cleveland Clinic’s first Chief Innovation Officer, as well as Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

In Baltimore, Dr. Graham served as Chief of the Congressionally designated National Hand Center, the largest specialty practice of its kind in the world, and held academic appointments at Johns Hopkins. He also was Vice Chairman of Orthopedic Surgery at Union Memorial Hospital and Director of MedStar Sports Health, the sports medicine division of the mid-Atlantic's largest health care system. In 2006, he founded the Arnold Palmer Sports Health Center with his longtime friend and patient. The center serves athletes of all age and talent levels, including providing care to the professional sports teams of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

A prolific inventor, Dr. Graham has more than 60 patents worldwide, including commonly used joint replacements and fracture-treatment implants for the upper extremity. His journey as an inventor is chronicled in his best-selling book “Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way.”

After earning his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Williams College, Dr. Graham received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Michigan and a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at the Indiana Hand Center, with additional training in elbow surgery at Mayo Clinic. He also completed a two-year Executive Management Program in healthcare administration, jointly sponsored by Cleveland Clinic and the Weatherhead School of Business - Case Western Reserve University.