(upbeat music)
- My name is Brett Patrick Goodbout.
I am an orthopedic surgeon here at Coordinated Health.
I have been in practice for 22 years.
I was, I believe, the third physician in this practice.
I practice currently at the Bethlehem facility,
the Easton campus, and the East Stroudsburg campus.
I think that the decision for me
to go into medicine was very simple.
I like, actually, speaking to people.
I really do enjoy my interactions with my patients,
so my choice to go into medicine was easy.
It was that I just enjoy being with people
and if I can help them at the same time,
it was a wonderful way to have an occupation.
Choosing orthopedics was a very different decision.
I never entered medicine thinking
that I was going to be a surgeon,
much less an orthopedic surgeon.
I entered medicine with my eyes wide open.
I saw myself in any number of specialties,
but my first rotation as a third year med student
happened to be in orthopedics,
and to be honest with you,
I couldn't believe that these,
the residents and attendings,
were having so much fun.
Honestly, I just didn't realize you could have
so much fun and practice medicine at the same time.
I attended Upstate Medical Center
in Syracuse, New York, and graduated in 1982.
I then moved to Rhode Island.
I completed my two years of pre-orthopedic
training at Brown University in 1984.
I then stayed in Providence, and I started
my orthopedic residency at Brown in 1984,
completing it in 1988.
In 1989, I began my fellowship training,
and moved my entire family down
to Birmingham, Alabama.
My fellowship was under the guidance
of Dr. Jim Andrews, sort of a famous
sports medicine doctor in the world.
I came up to the Lehigh Valley after that,
and I've been in the Lehigh Valley since my fellowship.
I was very interested in joining a practice
that was moving fast, and this practice,
even in 1990, was flying.
For me, it was a perfect opportunity
to get busy fast, and it was really
those motivating factors that made
the decision relatively easy for me.
Let's talk about the shoulder briefly.
For most of my patients over 40,
the major problem is their lack of flexibility.
An impingement process can be from a number of factors.
A lot of it is just wear and tear over time,
repetition, a lot of overhead use,
and it is a condition that is probably
one of the most common complaints
that my patients will come in with.
Treatment is definitely guided towards
what level of the impingement you are at
at the time of your clinical presentation.
I am one of those doctors who is old enough
to have seen all of the open procedures.
I saw the open procedures get better,
and then I saw the arthroscopic procedures.
If there's anything that I made myself do
was to grow with the time.
What I'm doing today is 2012,
not what my residency taught me in 1988
or my fellowship in 1990.
So, one of the nice things that I can now offer my patient,
at least over the past five or six years,
is a truly fully arthroscopic approach to that,
and that means a non-invasive,
with three or four little puncture holes to the shoulder.
We can actually go in, confirm the diagnosis,
and then treat that condition arthroscopically.
Trying to get more dimensional as I go, as I get older.
I do like sports. I'm a runner.
I've run five marathons.
Not a great golfer, but I do enjoy
getting out a couple times a week
and playing some golf.
I'm a skier. I've skied since I was five.
I do enjoy photography.
I'm getting back into that a little bit.
But I'm very much an outdoors person.
I have a lovely wife.
My wife practices, actually, my wife has been
a nurse practitioner for many years,
but she's very active professionally, too,
which makes it kind of fun to share
a little different conversation
than orthopedics at home.
I'm an empty-nester as of this year.
I have three children,
and they're all doing very, very well.
I'm very proud of that.
I think giving back is important.
That's the other thing about as we get older,
you think more about that.
I am still the team physician at Moravian College.
Have a great athletic training staff there.
I also have great relationship with the other high schools.
I've worked with Nazareth in the past.
I've been the team physician at Liberty
probably for like six years.
I truly believe in the trainer outreach program,
and communicating with the trainers
at the high school level and college level
is very important to me.
One of the most important things
is that we do allow physicians to be
whomever they want to be.
In other words, I'm speaking as an orthopedist,
you can decide the world of orthopedics that you want,
whether you want to treat patients with back problems
or foot problems or knee and shoulder only.
You can design your practice,
and I think a lot of practices today
don't allow you to do that.
The other very important part of this practice
is that we treat you from the time we meet you
to the time we discharge you.
We don't have to send you out to
have an MRI or a CT scan, or send you to
a physical therapist that we don't know,
so we don't lose control of the quality
of care that we deliver.
Our hospital quality is second to none in the state.
We are very proud of our staff
and everyone that contributes to this total picture.
But I think, for the most part, we can offer
our patients a very whole approach
to the treatment of their condition.
I've been very, very blessed in many respects.
Honestly, 22 years, I couldn't write this better.
I'm very happy.
I love my profession.
I'm not ready to retire.
I think my relationship with my patients
I think is what really keeps me going.
Not to diminish the fact that I have a great staff.
Our support staff has been really important,
and every one of them makes my life easier.
I think that that is another reason
that I can continue to practice the way I do.
(upbeat music)