Today we’d like to introduce you to Ian Thomas.
Hi Ian, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My mother has been a local family physician in the city of Battle Creek for the last 25 years. I grew up with medicine, but didn’t become serious about pursuing it until after my diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of eleven and led me to become interested in medicine and volunteer at Oaklawn’s cancer center.
In middle and high school as I became more involved with athletics, particularly gymnastics, I began becoming interested in the intersection between sports and medicine and began shadowing a local orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William Comai.
I began coaching gymnastics in college, medical school and residency training and always made an effort to take what I was learning to improve the performance and longevity of my athletes in the sport and was proud to have coaches multiple, state and regional champions as well as national and junior elite competitiors.
During my residency training, I wrote a $50,000 grant to create an point-of-care ultrasound curriculum for my residency and was awarded Best Leadership Project award from the Emerging Leaders Institute and Graduate Medical Education Award for the top 12 graduating residency in the country. This created opportunities to travel around the country teaching diagnostic ultrasonography nationally and international while I was still completing my training. Currently, I currently work as the lead instructor for the Global Ultrasound Institute and Chair for of the Point-of-Care Ultrasound Assessment Council for Inteleos.
Afterward, I decide to pursue fellowship training in Sports Medicine and Interventional Orthopedics at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, an emerging field focusing on ultra-minimally invasive treatment of musculoskeletal conditions that improves patient outcomes and significantly shortens recover times.
After completing training, I returned back to Battle Creek to bring these new found skill sets back home where I opened my own business, Thomas Sports and Regenerative Orthopedics (TSARO).
Here we offer a variety of cutting edge sonosurgical techniques for treatment of orthopedic ailments such carpal tunnel, where I am one in thirteen in the world that can perform a carpal tunnel release with thread which results in a two day recovery time (instead of 4-6 weeks) and leaves no scar. Similarly I am the only one in the state that performs a minimally invasive trigger finger release which also results in a scarless, 2 day recovery time, meaning you could receive the procedure on Friday and be back to work on Monday.
We also have the only scrambler therapy device in the state of michigan which has allowed to help many patients with complex regional pain syndrome go into remission and are pioneering the first non-operative treatment of a little known condition called “Slipped Rib Syndrome” or SRS that typically affects patients with hypermobility, but also professional athletes such a golfers. I am only one of two people in the country that can perform and results in return to sport/activities in 4 weeks instead of 6-12 month recovery time from traditional surgical approach.
I am currently in the process of publishing a retrospective study on in conjuntion with my mentor from Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Dr. Pierre D’Hemecourt.
Our approach has increased the amount of patients traveling from all over the country and overseas to receive treatments for their conditions not offered elsewhere, which has lead me to do private consultating for professional golfers and other athletes as well as a variety of sports teams around the country.
Due to the volume of patients, we more recently are opening a new Urgent Care/Urgent Ortho, ‘East Columbia Urgent Care and Ortho’ to better meet the needs of the community which we hope to opening early November. We hope to continue to provide unique and exceptional services and make Battle Creek, MI destination for excellent orthopedic care.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
With all success, there are many challenges along the way, but I was able to overcome them with hard work and findings mentors along the way.
We’ve been impressed with Thomas Sports and Regenerative Orthopedics; East Columbia Urgent Care and Ortho, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At TSARO, we offer a variety of approaches, conservative, minimal invasive, and sonosurgical for management of neuropathies, tendinopathies, osteoarthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions to meet our patients’ needs.
We offer a variety of cutting edge sonosurgical techniques offered few places around the country for treatment of orthopedic ailments. Examples include a carpal tunnel release procedure, where I am one in thirteen in the world that can perform a carpal tunnel release with thread which results in a two day recovery time (instead of 4-6 weeks) and leaves no scar.
Similarly I am the only one in the state that performs a minimally invasive trigger finger release which also results in a scarless, 2 day recovery time, meaning you could receive the procedure on Friday and be back to work on Monday.
I was also trained in regenerative medicine at Boston Childrens/Harvard Medical School and offer the lastest techniques and management of osteoarthritis and other conditions utilizing FDA approved platetet rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate concentrate and other cell-based therapies, colloquially known as stem cells. Unlike others, we do all laboratory measurements and cell counting in office to ensure consistency and efficacy of our treatments consistent with latest published literature.
We also have the only scrambler therapy device in the state of michigan which has allowed to help many patients with complex regional pain syndrome go into remission.
We are also pioneering the first non-operative treatment of a little known condition called “Slipped Rib Syndrome” or SRS that typically affects patients with hypermobility, but also professional athletes such a golfers. I am only one of two people in the country that can perform and results in return to sport/activities in 4 weeks instead of 6-12 month recovery time from traditional surgical approach.
We am currently in the process of publishing a retrospective study on in conjuntion Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
Our approach has increased the amount of patients traveling from all over the country and overseas to receive treatments for their conditions not offered elsewhere and due to this demand, we are opening a new Urgent Care/Urgent Ortho, ‘East Columbia Urgent Care and Ortho’ to better meet the needs of the community which we hope to opening early November.
We hope to continue to provide unique and exceptional services and make Battle Creek, MI destination for excellent orthopedic care.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We hope to collaborate with local physical therapists, athletic trainers, physicians, and surgeons to improve multi-disciplinary coordination and management orthopedic conditions in the area.
We also would like to collaborate with local high schools and colleges to improve sports optimization and athletics in the area.
Anyone interested in referring to Thomas Sports and Regenerative Orthopedics (www.thomassportandregen.com) or being seen can contact us at 269 883 6052 or if there are acute conditions they can be seen by walk in at East Columbia Urgent Care and Ortho (www.eastcolumbiauco.com).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thomassportandregen.com/ and www.eastcolumbiauco.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61561570123503/reels/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ian-thomas8971
