Dr. Ramon Ylanan, Dr. Terry Sites, Dr. Christopher Arnold, all of Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists, roam the sidelines at Razorback games, such as the Southwest Classic in Dallas shown above.
Drs. Christopher Arnold and Terry Sites rarely miss an Arkansas Razorbacks football game.
Arnold and Sites, along with Dr. Mark Powell, are founding members of Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists of Fayetteville, the official orthopedic and sports medicine provider for the Hogs. AOS has at least two orthopedic surgeons — Arnold and Sites — and a primary care sports medicine doctor roaming the sidelines of every Razorback football game.
AOS also provides medical care to all 500 or so student-athletes at the University of Arkansas.
“Like many citizens … we all have a sweet spot in our heart for the Razorbacks,” said Sites, who spent his childhood in Little Rock.
Each member of the practice’s seven physicians is assigned a sport to cover, from baseball to the swimming and diving team. “It’s like going to the same doctor every single visit,” Arnold said.
Founded in 2008 with four orthopedic surgeons, the practice has been growing ever since. It has added three sports medicine primary care doctors and now has 50 employees. AOS also recently opened a location in Benton County.
Before 2008, no single medical practice took care of all of the university’s student-athletes.
The university was “looking for physicians that were subspecialized in sports medicine,” Arnold said, and Advanced Orthopaedic Specialists’ physicians met that qualification.
Arnold, Sites and Powell all had training with NFL teams: Arnold with the New England Patriots, Sites with the Houston Oilers and Powell with the St. Louis Rams.
“We try to take care of the Razorbacks as we would a professional team, and we carry that over to our private patients as well,” Arnold said.
The number of athletes’ injuries treated varies from year to year, of course. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, AOS had 248 insurance claims from treating student-athletes, up from 195 claims the previous year, according to the UA, which released the figures in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
“One year you may see a slew of shoulder injuries or ACL injuries,” Sites said. The incidence of those injuries varies.
Concussions are a “big, hot topic everywhere right now, from peewee football … all the way up to the NFL,” said Dr. Ramon Ylanan, a primary care sports medicine doctor who joined AOS in 2012.
A widely reported medical journal study released in July found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, in the autopsied brains of 110 of 111 former NFL players. The study also reported that a neurodegenerative disease had been discovered in 177 of 202 deceased football players who played the game at all levels.
Ylanan, whose specialty includes concussions, is cautious about the report and said more studies are needed on the topic. “There’s a correlation, but no causation,” he said. “We’re still learning about concussions. We’re still learning about the short-term and the long-term ramifications.”
Still, if there is any doubt about a concussion, a Razorback will be pulled from the game and given a battery of tests before being cleared to participate again, Ylanan said.
AOS’ contract with the university runs through June 30, 2019, but can be renewed up to two years.
AOS is paid per procedure or if an athlete is seen in its office. AOS bills the athlete’s private insurance, but the UA pays the bills for athletes who don’t have insurance. The University of Arkansas paid AOS a total of $541,931 between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2017, according to the university. AOS also received $565,891 from the athletes’ insurance companies during that period, the records provided to Arkansas Business showed.
AOS’ Arnold, a native of northwest Arkansas, said the medical practice doesn’t provide services to the Razorbacks to make money. “We do it because we have a passion for it,” he said.
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