Dr. Pelt specializes in hip replacement and revision, as well as knee replacement and revision. Minimally invasive joint replacement, partial knee replacement (unicompartmental, patellofemoral), and direct anterior hip replacement are all aspects of his practice. Dr. Pelt is a Tenured Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Utah. He serves as Medical Director of the Orthopaedic and Trauma Unit at the University Hospital and as the Chief Value Officer for the Inpatient Orthopaedic Services. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a Fellow of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS), and a member of the Utah State Orthopedic Society. Dr. Pelt is a member of both the Knee Society (https://www.kneesociety.org/) and the Hip Society (https://www.hipsoc.org). These two elite invitation-only membership organizations consist of the world's top knee and hip surgeons and investigators in each separate society, who are internationally recognized thought-leaders, innovators, mentors, researchers, and educators in knee and hip replacement and reconstructive surgery. Dr. Pelt's ha published over research interests are centered on patient outcomes and value following hip and knee reconstructive surgeries. Given the large referral center at the University of Utah, Dr. Pelt performs several hundred surgeries each year and sees and treats a wide variety of cases including some of the most complex primary, revision and complicated surgeries in his field. Other orthopaedic surgeons all across the Intermountain West refer their patients to Dr. Pelt and his partners for care. This provides a broad fund of knowledge to help all of his patients, including those needing the highest quality outcome with their first joint replacement. In addition to the expert surgical care provided to each patient, he also teaches medical students, residents, fellows and even other practicing surgeons at meetings locally and throughout the country. Patients travel from across the country to seek care at the University of Utah Department of Orthopaedics as patients realize that they can receive the highest level of care from the surgeons that are on the cutting edge by coming directly to the center of excellence. Studies have shown that outcomes are better and complications are fewer when surgeries, such as joint replacement, are performed at high volume medical centers with experienced high volume surgeons, like Dr. Pelt and his colleagues. Dr. Pelt grew up along the coasts of Oregon and Washington, and ultimately attended the University of Washington for his undergraduate education. He later completed medical school at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. He completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency and advanced training in an Adult Reconstruction fellowship at the University of Utah Department of Orthopaedics in Salt Lake City. Dr. Pelt's practice is based at the University Orthopaedic Center and he operates at both the University Orthopaedic Center and at the University Hospital in Salt Lake City. We asked Dr. Pelt to describe his thoughts and philosophies on patient care: My goal is to provide the highest quality of care available anywhere in the world to my patients. I strive for excellence in the clinical, surgical and personal care of my patients. I approach each patient as a unique individual. I work hard to understand the story and situation of the patient and their condition. I then try to offer the best available care based on that patient’s individual needs in the context of my own experience and the most up to date evidence from the medical literature that I regularly review and contribute to as a clinician scientist. When a patient is a candidate for surgery with me, they become a member of my family. The commitment to my patients is not just for the surgery, but for life. If I operate on someone, I expect that I will be not just their surgeon, but their doctor, friend, teammate and family member for life. The implants that I place are intended to decrease pain and restore function, and they need to be followed for life, so I commit that I will be there to help follow them for that time. The team that we have assembled here at the University of Utah Joint Center will work tirelessly to ensure the patient has the best opportunity for an amazing outcome. When a patient enters our clinics, they will notice the team approach that we take to helping them achieve an excellent outcome. If a patient comes to clinic with the expectation of receiving surgery, they should plan to spend at least a few hours with us, as multiple members of the team will help obtain their history, examine them, review their imaging and studies, discuss surgery and the risks and benefits, help obtain consultations and coordinate their care with other specialists if they have other medical issues, educate them on the surgery itself as well as both how to prepare for the surgery and what to expect after surgery. In addition to the time that I will spend with the patient, where they will have ample time to meet me and have their questions asked, they will also meet with no less than 3 other specialists of the team, each of them working to the best of their abilities to provide the highest quality of care to each individual patient. By performing a high volume of primary (first time) hip and knee replacements (approximately 600/year) and revision (redo or repeat) hip and knee surgeries, I maintain the practice, experience and skillset that my patients deserve in order to achieve the best outcomes possible. By being an area expert in the care of the most complex cases in hip and knee replacement and revision surgeries, I am not only able to offer care to patients who may otherwise not be able to have solutions to their difficult problems, but also able to hone the skillset required to achieve the best outcomes even on the more straightforward hip and knee replacements. My goal is to improve each patient’s quality of life. I hope to help decrease pain and improve function. I will spend time collecting data from the patient so that I can understand how they are doing compared to their past as well as compared to other patients. By using modern state of the art surgical techniques with the least invasive approaches available, I aim to restore my patients’ function to their desired levels and to help to enhance a speedy recovery process. By using a multimodal approach to pain control, I aim to minimize the amount of pain my patients experience early after surgery. This is often done with the use of regional (or spinal) anesthesia (often with some sedation for patients who desire it), medications that are injected in and around the area that we are operating that helps minimize pain, as well as several medications that can be taken orally (not just narcotics, which have their own downsides) to help minimize the amount of pain that the patient experiences. With the team approach I mentioned above extending beyond just the clinic to include the hospital setting, the partnership with our anesthesiology doctors, medical doctors, therapists, pharmacists, nurses, and assistants, the patient experience is optimized at every possible moment. With this approach, our patients have less pain, less nausea, less fatigue, less fogginess, and fewer side effects from surgery. Whereas, in the past, patients used to be thought of as a “sick patient” after surgery, our approach has improved the experience to such an extent, that most patients are better immediately after their surgery than they were when they walked into the hospital that morning with their disabling condition. Patients are now able to get up and walk on the day of surgery, and often are leaving the hospital within hours to return home where they can heal and recover in the best possible environment for healing – home sweet home. Today, we see our postoperative patient as being a “well patient” and we want to help in every possible way to help them feel “well.”