A radiologist and former chief medical officer at imaging giant Rad Partners is leading a new national orthopedics practice that just scored private equity backing to help bankroll its national expansion.
Jay Bronner, MD, MBA, is serving as chief executive officer of American Orthopedic Partners following his more than six-year stint as president and CMO at Rad Partners. He’s joined by Chief Development Officer Ryan Pahler, MBA, previously RP’s vice president of national business development.
The orthopedics practice recently partnered with funds managed by Stone Point Capital and is seeking others to join its partnership model. Together the two execs helped build Radiology Partners into what leaders say is now the largest imaging practice in the U.S. They’ll look to fuel the same growth now in a whole new specialty.
"We are building a national practice with the best of both worlds—it will be orthopedist-led and owned, while being supported by a team that has done it before,” Bronner said in a June 17 announcement. “We are excited to have Stone Point as a strategic partner and believe that their long-term payer relationships and deep workers’ compensation network will drive value to our practices and patients more broadly,” he added later.
World-renowned orthopedic surgeons James Andrews, MD, and Russell Warren, MD, are also joining AOP’s board as part of the announcement. Andrews treated top athletes such as Michael Jordan and Brett Favre, while Warren is surgeon-in-chief emeritus with the Hospital for Special Surgery and the New York Giants’ former physician, among other roles.
Bronner first announced he was stepping down from his full-time leadership role at Rad Partners in July 2020. Months later, RP launched a new office of the chief medical officer, promoting 13 rad leaders to serve as associate CMOs. Prior to his tenure, Bronner was a practicing neuroradiologist and CEO at Radiology Imaging Consultants. The group eventually grew into one of the 10 largest hospital-based radiology groups in the country before becoming a “foundation practice” at RP in 2013, according to Bronner’s LinkedIn page.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.