By: Adam Cohen Issue: Sports Section: Advisory Board
President - Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center
Dr. Thomas Friermood
Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center 660 Golden Ridge Road, Suite 250 Golden, CO 80401
P:303.233.1223 E: [email protected] w: www.panoramaortho.com
Dr. Thomas Friermood is the President of Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center. Panorama is a 26 physician sub-specialty orthopedic practice with three locations in the Denver metro-area. Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center was founded as Lakewood Orthopedic Clinic more than 50 years ago. Dr. Friermood has been the managing partner of Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center since 1984 and has seen the company grow from a 5 doctor practice to a practice of 25 physicians, 3 fellows and 20 physician assistants.
Dr. Friermood received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington. He graduated with honors from Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska in 1974. He completed his internship and orthopedic residency in Sacramento at the University of California at Davis. He also trained at the Shriner’s Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Friermood has provided care for disabled athletes and served as the team doctor for the U.S. Disabled Ski Team for 20 years. He had the opportunity to travel with the team extensively and attended the team during Paralympic Games in France, Norway, Japan, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. Friermood has also done volunteer orthopedics through Orthopedics Overseas, an agency that provides orthopedic services to third world countries. He traveled to Bhutan in the Himalayas where he was the only orthopedic surgeon in the country. On his second trip to Bhutan he helped train a Bhutanese physician in orthopedics.
For the past 20 years, Dr. Friermood has devoted most of his energies to the business aspect of medical practice. He no longer does surgery but still has several clinics that he visits each week including an indigent care clinic at St. Anthony Hospital. He was integral in the development of Golden Ridge Surgery Center, an out-patient surgery center specializing in orthopedic procedures. He has transformed his company from an orthopedic clinic to an integrated delivery system for musculoskeletal care.
For the past four years he has been working to develop OrthoColorado Hospital at the St. Anthony Medical Campus. OrthoColorado will be a 48 bed specialty hospital and is a joint venture between Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center and St. Anthony Hospital. OrthoColorado is scheduled to open the summer of 2010. Dr. Friermood believes this facility will provide world class orthopedic services to our community.
On a state and national level, Dr. Friermood is the immediate past president of the Colorado Orthopedic Society and a member of the executive board. He is one of two orthopedic surgeons representing Colorado on the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Board of Councilors. He is a board member of OrthoColorado Hospital and the Panorama Research and Education Foundation. He is also a member of the Orthopedic Trauma Association, the North American Spine Society and the Western Orthopedic Association.
Dr. Friermood has three children and lives in Lakewood, Colorado with his wife, Kay.