James E. Carpenter, M.D.
Harold W. and Helen L. Gehring Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery,
Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Team Physician, University of Michigan
Dr. Carpenter grew up in Southeastern Michigan. He received his undergraduate education in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University in New York, finishing in 1980. Following that he completed his medical school at the University of Michigan. He stayed in Ann Arbor for preliminary training in General Surgery, and then finished his training in orthopaedic surgery at Harvard in Boston. While there, he also completed a fellowship in orthopaedic research. After his training, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan beginning in 1990. Since then he has risen through the ranks and is now the Harold W. and Helen L. Gehring Professor and Chair of the Department in Orthopaedic Surgery.
Carpenter has an active clinical practice with special expertise in shoulder surgery and sports medicine. He is a Head Team Physician for the University of Michigan Athletic Department. He has been selected to be a traveling fellow by both the Mid-America Orthopaedic Association and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (ESSKA exchange). In addition to his role on the editorial board of AJSM, he is a member of the Orthopaedic RRC, an AOA Executive Committee member and is Director and Treasurer of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. As part of his ABOS role, he chairs the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Subspecialty Certification Exam.
Dr. Carpenter is also involved in research and discovery in orthopaedics. His focus has been primarily on disorders of the rotator cuff. He has numerous publications on this topic as well as on other shoulder conditions. His work has been recognized with several prestigious awards including the Neer Award from the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons. From the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine he has been honored with the Hughston Award, the Excellence in Research Award, and the O’Donoghue Sports Injury Research Award.
Selected Published Work
Carpenter JE, Hipp JA, Gerhart TN, Rudman CG, Hayes WC, Trippel SB. Failure of growth hormone to alter the biomechanics of fracture-healing in a rabbit model. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1992;74(3):359-367
Carpenter JE, Kasman R, Matthews LS. Fractures of the patella. Instr Course Lect. 1994;43:97-108.
Soslowsky LJ, Carpenter JE, DeBano CM, Banerji I, Moalli MR. Development and use of an animal model for investigations on rotator cuff disease. J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 1996;5(5):383-392.
Carpenter JE, Blasier RB, Pellizzon GG. The effects of muscle fatigue on shoulder joint position sense. Am J Sports Med. 1998;26(2):262-265
Soslowsky LJ, Thomopoulos S, Tun S, Flanagan CL, Keefer CC, Mastaw J, Carpenter JE. Neer Award 1999. Overuse activity injures the supraspinatus tendon in an animal model: a histologic and biomechanical study. J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 2000;9(2):79-84.
Carpenter JE, Wening JD, Mell AG, Langenderfer JE, Kuhn JE, Hughes RE. Changes in the long head of the biceps tendon in rotator cuff tear shoulders. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2005;20(2):162-165.
Tibor LM, Long JL, Schilling PL, Lilly RJ, Carpenter JE, Miller BS. Clinical outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a meta-analysis of autograft versus allograft tissue. Sports Health. 2010;2(1):56-72.
The MARS Group. Descriptive Epidemiology of the Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) Cohort. Am J Sports Med 2010;38:1979-1986.
Miller BS, Downie BK, Kohen RB, Kijek T, Lesniak B, Jacobson JA, Hughes RE, Carpenter JE. When do rotator cuff repairs fail? Serial ultrasound examination after arthroscopic repair of large and massive rotator cuff tears. Am J Sports Med. 2011;39(10):2064-2070
Hwang E, Carpenter JE, Hughes RE, Palmer ML. Shoulder labral pathomechanics with rotator cuff tears. J Biomech. 2014;47(7):1733-1738.
The MARS Group. Effect of Graft Choice on the Outcome of Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in the Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) Cohort Am J Sports Med. 2014;42:2301-2310.
Kweon C, Gagnier JJ, Robbins CB, Bedi A, Carpenter JE, Miller BS. Surgical Versus Nonsurgical Management of Rotator Cuff Tears: Predictors of Treatment Allocation. Am J Sports Med. 2015 Aug 12. pii: 0363546515593954. [Epub ahead of print]
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Michael Oberlander, MD
East Bay Sports Medicine
President and Chief Medical Officer, Trainer Rx
Concord, CA
Dr. Michael Oberlander aka “Obie” grew up on the south side of Chicago. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Tulane University graduating with honors, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. While at Tulane, he played recreational sports and worked as a radio disc jockey at WTUL which at the time was the #3 ranked station in New Orleans. Without sufficient talent to play soccer, alpine ski or broadcast at a professional level, he returned to Chicago for medical school. He attended The Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science / Chicago Medical School where he graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha honors. A general surgery internship was completed at Michael Reece Hospital in Chicago, coincidentally also his place of birth.
Onward the journey went eastward to Boston where he completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency training at Boston University and affiliated hospitals; University Hospital, Boston City Hospital, Lahey Clinic, Shriner’s Children Hospital and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield Massachusetts. Dr. Oberlander worked “off hours” covering a variety of sports teams and events during residency at Boston University and Northeastern University as well as the US Pro Tennis Championships. Dr. Oberlander’s interest in sports medicine was developed out of his own love of sports and his “mentors in training” most notably, Dr. Robert E. Leach the chairman of the Boston University program and emeritus editor in chief for the AJSM and Orthopaedic Review Journal. Dr. Oberlander began his editorial reviewing career during residency with the Orthopaedic Review Journal. He was chosen to initiate and author the “Articles of the Month” section in which he selected lead articles recently published in the global Orthopaedic literature and wrote a concise synopses. Dr. Oberlander was subsequently invited to serve on the editorial board for Orthopaedic Review where he served for more than 20 years. During the final two years of residency, he tried his hand in the restaurant business to add yet another layer of stress to the insanity of postgraduate surgical training. After opening Boston’s first “Original Chicago Hot Dog” restaurant, “Mr. Wilson’s” on the BU undergraduate campus, the business filed for chapter 11 within a year and the good doctor decided to continue his chosen career path.
Following residency training, Dr. Oberlander traveled south for more focused training at the Hughston Sports Medicine Clinic in Columbus, GA. There he worked as Dr. Jack Hughston’s last full time sports medicine fellow, in addition to training under some of the other great minds of sports medicine, Drs. Champ Baker and Glenn Terry. The clinical acumen developed under the tutelage of Dr. Hughston, one of the great pioneers in Sports Medicine, helped mold his clinical sports medicine career. Dr. Oberlander moved his family west to the “East Bay Area” of San Francisco where he ultimately cofounded his own practice, East Bay Sports Medicine.
Shortly after initiating his practice in Concord and Walnut Creek, CA, Dr. Oberlander helped the Mount Diablo Hospital system build a hospital based sports medicine program “The “Health and Fitness Institute” placed certified athletic trainers and physical therapists at approximately 10 local high schools and junior colleges.
He served as team physician for many of these schools over the years, most notably as the Head team physician at Diablo Valley College for 22 years.
Dr.Oberlander worked as an Orthopedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine specialist for 23 years in private practice treating recreational, collegiate, and professional athletes. He has served as an Orthopaedic Consultant, Assistant and Head team physician for Major League Soccer (MLS), San Jose Earthquakes, from 1996 until 2012, Head Team Physician for Major League Lacrosse (MLL) San Francisco Dragons, assistant team physician for XFL Extreme Football League San Francisco Demons, and USA Rugby. While covering these teams he traveled to Asia, South America, the South Pacific as well as extensively in North America. He also served as assistant team physician for the NFL, Oakland Raiders, and Orthopaedic consultant for MLS Houston Dynamo.
His special interest and research has been mostly knees and shoulders using advanced arthroscopic techniques. Lecturing extensively, he genuinely enjoys teaching other surgeons advanced arthroscopic techniques in the lab and operating room. Dr. Oberlander is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on topics related to sports and orthopaedic surgery. He also holds numerous US and foreign patents for surgical devices, implants, and techniques. Dr. Oberlander patented and developed one of the first arthroscopic all inside meniscal repair devices in the late 1980s and did the laboratory work at Duke University with Dr. John Feagin and colleagues with support of US Surgical and Covidien Sports Medicine. An innovator and problem solver, he holds patents for devices used in arthroscopic meniscal repair, rotator cuff repair and shoulder instability, in addition to designing a strapless shoulder instability immobilizer and gel knee pads for workers.
His favorite publications relate to his work with Dr. Hughston, time served as a team physician in Major League Soccer, and his clinical research on Meniscal Repair.
Dr. Oberlander has been a member of the editorial board for the American Journal of Sports Medicine for nearly 20 years and served as an editorial reviewer for 25 years. He serves as an editorial reviewer for Arthroscopy, a position held for 25 years, and Board member for 5 of those years. He was awarded Editor of the year for Arthroscopy. While continuing to work for the journals, Dr. Oberlander has retired from his clinical practice because of ongoing personal orthopaedic injuries and surgeries related to many alpine ski injuries and genetics.
He has since co-founded a medical software company, Trainer Rx where he serves as President and Chief Medical Officer. Trainer Rx is a web based consumer facing medical app providing an extensive aggregate of information using HD video, audio, and text to engage, educate, and rehabilitate patients with musculoskeletal injuries( http://www.trainer-rx.com) and surgery.
Selected Published Work
Oberlander MA, Shalvoy RM, Hughston JC. The Accuracy of the Clinical Knee Examination Documented by Arthroscopy. A Prospective Study. Am J Sports Med 1993;21(6):773-778.
Morgan BE, Oberlander MA. An Examination of Injuries in Major League Soccer. Am J Sports Med. 2001;12(4).
Oberlander MA, Chisar M. Meniscal Repair Using the SDsorb Meniscal Stapler. Arthroscopy. 2005; 21(9).
American Journal of Sports Medicine Editorial Board Spotlight 