About the Author

Thomas J. Graham, MD, is the Chief Innovation Officer of Cleveland Clinic. He leads the technology commercialization and corporate venturing arm of the Ohio-based global healthcare system, where he holds the Justice Family Chair in Medical Innovations. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Dr. Graham has extensive clinical expertise in surgery of the hand, wrist, and elbow, with special concentration on complicated reconstruction after trauma, complex elbow disorders, and congenital hand surgery. His practice is recognized worldwide as the premier destination for care of the wrist and hand of the professional athlete and entertainer.

His orthopaedic surgery career began at Cleveland Clinic in 1993, where he later became Chief of the Hand and Upper Extremity Division. In 2000, Dr. Graham was appointed Director of the Congressionally designated Curtis National Hand Center, the world’s largest practice in the specialty, located in Baltimore, Maryland. While there, he was as an associate professor of both orthopaedic and plastic surgery at Johns Hopkins. He also served as Director of MedStar SportsHealth, the sports operations division of the largest healthcare system in the mid-Atlantic. In 2006, he launched the Arnold Palmer Sports Health Center to honor his longtime friend and patient.

In 2010, Dr. Graham, a serial entrepreneur and prolific inventor with nearly 50 issued and pending patents, returned to Cleveland Clinic and was named the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer.

Dr. Graham has served as the hand surgery consultant or team physician for professional sports organizations in the four major North American leagues, as well as the PGA and LPGA Tours. He has published over 100 scholarly articles and has edited several books. He was featured on ABC’s Nightline for his role in the treatment of 9/11 survivors. His involvement with these heroes was also chronicled in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. He has also been featured on the Golf Channel, ESPN, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and many other media outlets.

A graduate of Williams College, he received his MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his residency training in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Michigan and a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at the famed Indiana Hand Center. He was a visiting surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, studying surgery of the elbow. He completed the executive management program in healthcare administration jointly sponsored by Cleveland Clinic and the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Graham is involved in multiple civic initiatives and organizations, especially those that advance innovation, community health, and economic development. An accomplished golfer and outdoorsman, he is married to his childhood sweetheart, CeCe, with whom he has two adult daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth.