The Arizona winter, with its glorious climate, is prime time for youth athletics and active adult activities.
More than 24 local hiking trails and no less than eight golf courses, youth and senior league sports, cycling and swimming, tennis and a smorgasbord of other outdoor activities available in the East Valley call to us get out and get active. But with that activity can come injuries, especially when we overdo it.
Craig H. Weinstein, MD, MPH, of Sports and Orthopaedic Specialists (SOS), with offices in East Mesa and Gilbert, advises, “To help prevent injuries, ease into your activity, and start slowly. Begin with a warm-up session and end with a cool-down period. Stretching before and after your activity helps to keep your body limber.”
An Arizona resident since high school, Dr. Weinstein returned to Arizona after earning his degree and fellowship training to open his first practice in Downtown Mesa, later moving the practice to Gilbert. He has returned to East Mesa, opening a second location as a founding member of the Red Mountain Medical Plaza, pioneering an integrated, community-based medical care model referred to as a medical mall.
“The concept allows us to focus on patient experience by bringing together a community of different providers, such as primary care and specialists, as well as ancillary health services that patients require, including pharmacy, labs and physical therapy, all under one roof,” Dr. Weinstein explained. “This is accomplished while preserving each individual’s own practice identity, own procedures, own speciality and expertise versus a traditional speciality clinic that is owned and run by a big hospital or corporation.”
The so-called medical mall is an idea whose time has come. There now are more than 50 such care models located throughout the United States. Attracting more medical providers to the Red Mountain area of the northeast corner of Mesa is the motivation behind Dr. Weinstein’s interest in partnering with other medical professionals to bring the Red Mountain Medical Plaza to fruition.
“There now are 14 physicians and many more ancillary services all working here together,” stated Kris Smith, one of the founding members. “All the doctor’s staff members interact with each other, so we all know each other like one big family.”
Dr. Weinstein brings to the East Valley specialization in the treatment of shoulder and elbow injuries from activities that involve repetitive motion. Such activities include pitching, throwing, swimming, weightlifting or racket sports, as well as knee and ankle injuries from hiking, running and high impact sports or just years of hard use.
He and his staff work with patients in a partnership to help restore health and mobility through state-of-the-art joint preservation and advanced treatment of athletic injuries in both adult and adolescent patients. “In our practice,” stated Dr. Weinstein, “we explore all options when prescribing treatments, including exercise, medications, physical therapy, palliative care, and ambulatory support, such as braces and other rehabilitative therapies.”
One tool the doctor has pioneered over the past 10 years to successfully diagnosis sports injuries is musculoskeletal ultrasound. The use of ultrasound has greater benefits as a diagnostic tool for joint and soft tissue injuries over a traditional MRI. Ultrasound is safe, cost-effective and fast, providing high-resolution real-time images of muscles and tendons.
Ultrasound also allows the patient to move during diagnostic testing, which facilitates a more precise identification of pain points, versus a traditional MRI, which requires the patient to remain motionless.
Many young-at-heart seniors experience knee pain as a result of injury or years of wear and tear, which could mean a knee replacement. “People come to my office because they are active and consider themselves athletes. They are looking for some other answers for their knee pain,” Dr. Weinstein said. “When surgery is necessary, we use state-of-the-art techniques to allow for minimal pain and maximal recovery.”
Setting SOS apart from other practices is the awareness of the impact of a total knee replacement on lifestyle and activities levels, with the ability to offer alternatives. As many as 70 percent of his patients who received knee replacements opted for a partial replacement, a treatment developed for individuals to preserve the activity levels they enjoy from an active lifestyle.
A less invasive and less complex surgical treatment, carrying with it shorter recovery time is a significant benefit of a partial knee replacement. Perhaps the most important benefit of a partial replacement over a total replacement is the higher level of mobility with fewer activity restrictions.
The Sports and Orthopaedic Specialists office is located in the Red Mountain Medical Plaza at 8035 E. Brown Road, Building 4, at the corner of Brown Road and 80th Street. Office hours are Fridays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Gilbert office is located at 3487 S. Mercy Road, between Woodside Court and Rome Street. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Red Mountain Medical Plaza is open to the public. For more information about Sports and Orthopaedic Specialists, or to find a medical professional, visit the website at rm-medicalplaza.com.