Imagine a cross between Mike Ditka and Steve Irwin and you've just conjured up an apt image of the man in charge of keeping the Tennessee Titans healthy on and off the field. Orthopaedist Burton Elrod, MD, wears countless hats … from head physician for the Tennessee Titans and founder of Elite Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center to alligator hunter and skydiver.
Football Meets Medicine
A lifelong athlete with a passion for football, Elrod said medicine was an easy choice. When a player he was coaching became partially paralyzed, he decided to become a physician.
“Orthopaedics was a natural way to do both,” Elrod said of his two passions.
After receiving his undergrad at Lipscomb University, Elrod attended medical school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he also completed his orthopaedic residency. Moving to California, he continued his post-graduate studies in sports medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Foundation and with the Los Angeles Rams.
“I went to L.A. because I wanted a pro team here in Nashville, and I said that within 15 years we would have one,” said the Middle Tennessee native. Sure enough, the Titans arrived 15 years later. and Elrod began a second job that’s since resulted in 70-hour workweeks packed with tryouts, camps, practices and games … but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love the sport, and it’s the ultimate challenge because these athletes are under so much pressure,” Elrod said. “There’s a lot of money on the line with professional athletes, and it requires keeping up with the latest, newest technology. One game can make a difference for these guys.”
Elite
Off the field, Elrod can be found delivering the same quality of care to patients at Elite Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center, which first opened as Southern Sports Medicine in the 1980s. Now a 10-physician practice, Elrod insists the goal at Elite isn’t to become the biggest ortho provider in Middle Tennessee but to treat all patients with first-class care.
“While we treat athletes of all levels, youth through professional, we treat everyone with the same care that our professional athletes receive and with the best providers around,” Elrod said. “When people are hurt, they’re stressed. They’re worried about their jobs and not being able to enjoy activities they usually do. We started Elite to create a truly integrated system to provide patients with as good or better care as they can get anywhere else in the world. We really wanted a place where we could treat patients like family.”
Elite now boasts four locations in the Nashville area: Saint Thomas Midtown, TriStar Centennial, Franklin and Lebanon. In fall 2015, Elite also will open a new satellite office in Green Hills. “The community has really honored what we’ve been doing by supporting our growth,” he said.
Elrod, who was instrumental in bringing arthroscopic surgery from experimental to the mainstream, stays well versed in industry trends and looks to scientific advances to change the future of orthopaedic care. Elite already offers Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP), and Elrod expects the option to unveil even more potential in the treatment of injuries. He also awaits big things in the area of biologics, as well as surgical techniques and advances in non-operative care like PT and hyaluronic acid injections.
“We always try to be on the cutting edge with treatments we offer,” Elrod said. “Stem cell, for example, is a very new area in orthopaedics and more research needs to be done, but so far our experience has been positive.”
Another goal of Elrod’s is to build a sports medicine center in Nashville as good or better than anywhere in the world. When he’s not on the field or in clinic, the self-professed adrenaline junkie can be found racing cars, hunting wild animals, skiing, sky diving, or engaging in a number of other death-defying acts that would land most mere mortals on the other side of the orthopaedist’s desk … but not Elrod.
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