Prominent Sports Med Doctor Joins NYU Langone Health

Thomas J. Graham, M.D., a prominent hand surgeon who has worked with many professional sports teams and elite athletes, recently joined the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at New York University (NYU) Langone Health as director of strategy and innovation. He is also serving as associate chief of the division of surgery and will see patients at NYU’s Langone’s Hand Center where he is moving his clinical practice.

“We are incredibly fortunate to recruit Dr. Graham to NYU Langone, and to bring his renowned skills as a hand surgeon, innovator and physician leader to our department,” said Joseph D. Zuckerman, M.D., the Walter A. L. Thompson Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

“Having a surgeon and visionary like Dr. Graham join our already outstanding hand surgery faculty further catapults our top-ranked program to an even higher level of excellence.”

Graham has extensive clinical expertise in surgery of the hand, wrist, elbow, with particular expertise in complicated reconstruction after trauma, complex elbow disorders, and congenital hand ailments. He has also served as the hand surgery consultant, team physician or medical director for numerous professional sports teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and the Professional Golfer’s Association and the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tours, and has personally cared for thousands of elite athletes.

Graham’s first faculty appointment was as director of the Hand and Upper Extremity Center at the Cleveland Clinic and then he served as chief of the congressionally designated Curtis National Hand Center and as vice-chairman of orthopedic surgery at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

While in Baltimore he also established MedStar SportsHealth and was the founder and surgeon-in-chief of the Arnold Palmer Sports Health Center.

Graham then returned to Cleveland Clinic to serve as its inaugural chief innovation officer and vice chairman of orthopedic surgery.

He also holds more than 50 patents for medical devices, primarily implants to treat fractures or replace joints of the upper extremity, and has started several public and private medical device and artificial intelligence companies.

Graham said, “NYU Langone has impressed me with its commitment to innovation and collaboration, where colleagues embrace the responsibilities and opportunities that come with clinical and academic leadership.”

“NYU Langone’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery remains at the vanguard of our specialty by optimizing outcomes and the patient experience,” he added.