Curtis W. Rodin, MD

Curtis W. Rodin, MD, is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He specializes in hip, knee, and shoulder surgery, as well as sports and running injuries.

He strives not just to treat patients in the short term but to help them plan better, healthier lives in the long term. What he likes most about his medical practice is having a patient return to the office and tell him that not only do they feel better, but they are living a fuller life. Sometimes that is because of surgery, and sometimes it’s because of an important issue he and a patient have discussed and decided needed attention and work.

While orthopedic surgery has become a highly specialized and technical field of medicine he still believes that the best and most important care occurs on a personal level. He works with his patients in partnership toward selecting treatment and lifestyle choices aimed at optimizing health and function.

For Dr. Rodin, one appealing aspect of orthopedic surgery is the constant evolution in new tools and techniques. He believes that a good surgeon must stay on top of these changes and be able to discern whether they are truly helpful or not.

In the complex field of orthopedic surgery, sometimes the best learning opportunities present themselves when least expected. After five years of training in one of the most prestigious orthopedic residencies in the country, followed by ten years of experience in private practice, he learned how much you can do with so little, when he and his family traveled to Bhutan and worked with Orthopedics Overseas in 2002.

The extremely limited resources in Bhutan forced him to think about what he was doing in an entirely different way. The experience required extra creativity and mental flexibility, and was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences he has had as a surgeon, and probably also the most humbling.

He credits this experience with helping him to be a better physician to his stateside patients. He believes that flexible thinking and experience deepen the knowledge gained from formal training, allowing for care based on an individual’s unique situation.

In addition to his skills as a surgeon, he is a runner, a musician, and an artist. In college, he played football and basketball at Pacific Lutheran University, where he was, and probably still is, the only collegiate athlete in the nation to play in both a varsity football and basketball game in the same day.