Life in Motion is the Olympia Orthopaedic Associate’s (OOA) motto. And throughout the last four decades, working toward a life in motion looks different. In OOA’s Sports Medicine Center a “Life in Motion” entails patients working to get back to a sport or activity they love, possibly the same one that caused a visit the center in the first place.
With an active population in the South Sound, the Sports Medicine Center is busier than ever. Dr. Tracy Hamblin and Dr. Dominic Femiano are excited to welcome a third member to the team – Dr. Bradley Christ.
Dr. Christ comes to the team with a solid skill set in orthopaedics and sports medicine, along with a few other unique talents. Born in upstate New York, Dr. Christ grew up in southern California in the San Gabriel Valley. He attended Claremont McKenna College for his undergraduate degree in management engineering and continued to the University of California, San Diego to earn a bachelor’s and master’s in biomedical engineering.
At the time of Dr. Christ’s graduation, the biotech industry was crashing. “I had a chemical engineering focus and most of the available jobs were on oil rigs in the middle of the ocean and my wife wasn’t interested,” he says. Plus, his interest in attending medical school was growing stronger. Luckily, Dr. Christ had a fallback plan.
“During grad school I started playing cards just for fun with friends. Turns out, I’m pretty good at it,” he laughs. “By the time I graduated, I was making money at it and decided to play poker professionally for a couple years while I studied for the MCAT and took a few additional classes, getting all those boxes checked, before I applied to med school.”
After two years as a professional poker player, Dr. Christ entered medical school at the University of Southern California (USC). He settled on an orthopaedic focus and chose UCSF Fresno for his residency – the busiest level 1 trauma hospital in California. With a desire to hone his specialty even more, Dr. Christ travelled south to UCLA for a Sports Medicine fellowship.
After a lifetime of living and schooling in California, Dr. Christ, his wife Carol and their cocker spaniel Dottie are ready for a change and have chosen to make Olympia their home. Dr. Christ’s love of the outdoors – hiking, fishing and snowboarding – contributed to his decision to move to Washington, but ultimately, the reputation of OOA and the chance to put his orthopaedic and sports medicine training together in one place sealed the deal.
Dr. Christ brings new skills to the Sports Medicine Center at OOA. He’s not only a sports medicine specialist, but an orthopaedic surgeon – something not directly available in the Sports Medicine Center before. Drs. Hamblin and Femiano are both family practice physicians with a sports medicine focus. Dr. Christ brings his surgical services to round out the team.
Combining the skills of a surgeon with the therapeutic care of two sports medicine physicians allows OOA to fully care for local college and high school athletes, as well as the youth and adult athletes, throughout our area. “Being in clinic will increase appointment availability and free up Drs. Hamblin and Femiano to do more therapeutic medicine,” explains Dr. Christ. “Together, we can give a broader scope of treatment for sports medicine patients offering non-operative modalities from Drs. Hamblin and Femiano and I can handle the more surgical cases.”
Dr. Christ joins his colleagues in their work on the sidelines, too. Each physician in the Sports Medicine Center works directly with local high school and college teams, partnering with trainers and coaches to help athletes get, and stay, healthy.
While at UCLA, Dr. Christ worked closely with the athletic department. “I partnered with the training and coaching staff to ensure from start to finish – during practices, in-game, and after game – proper precautions were taken and injures were promptly cared-for,” he explains. “Part of that is having a plan – an ambulance in place, equipment on the field – in the event someone is injured so we can take care of them.”
Dr. Christ has started seeing patients at the OOA Westside Clinic and is excited to be working directly with an active population. “My interest and passion in sports medicine lies in helping get people back to a high level of activity, back to doing the things they love,” he shares. Sometimes this involves the use of his surgical skills where he opts (when possible) for minimally invasive arthroscopic procedures for shoulders, knees and hips. “It’s easier to get people moving again when there is minimal trauma to the surgical site.”
The Olympia Orthopaedic Associates Sports Medicine Center is now just that – a center for sports medicine related injuries and concerns with a team of physicians serving nearly all patient needs, surgical and non-surgical, within the Center. “We are focused,” shares Dr. Christ. “Sports Medicine is our life. We intimately understand sports injuries and have trained specifically to treat them. We have a narrower focus and it serves our patients well.”
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Christ or any of the physicians at the Olympia Orthopaedic Associates Sports Medicine Clinic, call 360-709-6230. To learn more about OOA’s services, visit Olympia Orthopaedic Associates online.
