A New Era in Orthopaedic Care
At Saunders Center for Orthopaedics and Physical Performance, our goal is simple: to help you live your best life — a life in motion. We’re proud of our legacy of innovative care and we’re excited to carry that tradition forward by building a new, comprehensive treatment facility. The Center, located at Marketplace Mall, offers easy access and the latest and best approaches to care for patients of all ages and abilities. This year, we’ll finish construction for the biggest, most complete orthopaedic facility in the Northeastern U.S., with every detail designed to support your satisfaction and well-being.
The Best Care, in the Best Possible Setting
Our physicians, nurses and therapists specialize in treating every musculoskeletal condition that children and adults encounter — from everyday sprains and strains to complex restorative surgeries. Highly skilled, compassionate, and patient-focused, our team provides the best possible orthopaedic care. We’re building a world-class facility where patients will receive all the advantages of next-generation orthopaedic medicine: ambulatory surgery and post-operative care, advanced diagnostic imaging, functional movement-based physical therapy and athletic performance training, computerized motion analysis, customized prosthetics and assistive devices, and advanced approaches to injury risk assessment and prevention. You’ll find it all here.
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Young girl dances again after intense spine surgery
Teenager Olivia Wehle was just a regular kid whose love of dance began when she was 4 years old. She practiced several nights a week at a local dance studio and, until she began to experience back discomfort, never dreamed she'd stop.
But the discomfort turned into pain, which eventually became excruciating, and physical therapy prescribed by Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Paul Rubery, director of the UR Medicine Spine Center, wasn't lessening the pain. Imaging revealed a dangerous tumor that was growing around her spine. An extensive emergency surgery with a multidisciplinary team at Golisano Children's Hospital to remove the tumor and rebuild her spine was the only option.
Olivia met that challenge head-on with quiet determination and, in the process, amazed her parents, Cathi and Corey Wehle; her medical team; and all who know her. Her goal was simple: To return to dance in time for her next recital. She had eight weeks.
"She showed no fear, no doubt," recalls her mother. "There was only drive and only perseverance."
Leaders in Advancing Care
Since UR Medicine Orthopaedics was founded nearly a century ago, our clinicians and researchers have never stopped pursuing better ways to help patients move. Because of our pioneering department, what were once new and untested approaches — arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage and ligaments, Harrington Instrumentation to treat adolescent scoliosis, total joint replacement to restore mobility to people with end-stage arthritis — have become commonplace, indispensable treatments around the world. Building on these breakthroughs, our team continues to explore: work in biologic treatments for joint health, artificial intelligence to facilitate research, and population health strategies to make care more effective for future generations is helping shape the future of orthopaedic care.
A History of Innovation
1926
Established as a division of the Department of Surgery, led by R. Plato Schwartz, MD, renowned for his clinical research in gait and foot mechanics.
1963
Louis A. Goldstein, MD launches a new approach to spine deformities by using Harrington instrumentation – the first widely used internal fixation system.
1974
Orthopaedics becomes a department under the leadership of chair C. McCollister Evarts, MD, an early advocate for total joint replacement surgery in the United States. He creates subspecialties for spine surgery, adult reconstruction surgery and hand surgery.
1976
A new division — Sports Medicine — opens, led by Kenneth DeHaven, MD, a pioneer in arthroscopic knee surgery and the surgical repair of meniscal injuries.
Late 1970s
Richard Burton, MD, develops a surgical procedure for osteoarthritis at the base of the thumb; the technique's results are so superior, the procedure becomes the gold standard. Surgeons around the world know it simply as the Burton Procedure.
1981
Chair of Orthopaedics, Dr. Richard Burton, recruits Dr. J. Edward Puzas, who builds programs focused on understanding bone matrix and the osteoblastic cells that produce it.
1984
Randy Rosier, MD, PhD, was recruited as the department's first clinician-scientist; he initiates the cartilage biology program, focusing on growth factor regulation of the growth plate.
2000
To accommodate the department's growth, the University of Rochester opens an orthopaedic outpatient center at Clinton Crossings. Then-Chair Richard Burton, MD, helmed the project, envisioning a clinic space that included imaging, procedure rooms, orthotics and bracing all in one place to raise the quality and convenience of care for patients and providers alike.
2000
Rosier is appointed Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation and Director of the new Center for Musculoskeletal Research. CMSR takes its place as one of the top five NIH-funded musculoskeletal research centers in the U.S., a distinction that has continued uninterrupted for the past two decades.
2015
Paul T. Rubery, M.D., Chief of the division of Spine Surgery at University of Rochester and a specialist in scoliosis and spinal deformities, is named Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics.
2019
The University of Rochester announces plans to build an ambulatory Orthopaedics campus on the site of The Marketplace in Henrietta. At 330,000 square feet, the $227 million project would be the largest offsite building project in the University’s history.
2023
Surgery Center, Advanced Imaging, and Procedural Suite now open.