You often hear people who become top professionals in their field say they dreamed of being that from an early age, but that wasn’t the case with Dr. Greg Roberts.
It’s not a stretch to say he came to be with Cookeville Regional Medical Center and Tier 1 Institute in Cookeville through an unusual path.
Dr. Roberts, an Upper Cumberland native, decided to pursue a medical degree after three years in a completely different major. He attended Vanderbilt University, majoring in engineering before switching to medicine during his senior year.
“I majored in mechanical engineering. I always enjoyed solving problems and fixing things,” Dr. Roberts said. “I decided to switch to medicine during my senior year. I visited a museum in Minnesota, where I saw information about my great grandfather, who was a tuberculosis doctor, and really became interested in medicine. It was a great fit to apply that problem-solving to helping people.
“I had never really considered medicine prior to my senior year in college,” Dr. Roberts said.
After making the change from engineering, Roberts attended medical school at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. He completed his orthopedic training at the prestigious Campbell Clinic. When he took his board certification exam, Dr. Roberts scored in the top one percent of all orthopedic surgeons.
At Tier 1 Institute, he’s one of several orthopedic physicians and neurosurgeons who provide a plethora of services to thousands of patients across the Upper Cumberland, and a widening area in Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Dr. Roberts practices general orthopedic surgery, with a particular emphasis on sports medicine and adult reconstructive surgery.
“I also have a great deal of interest in less-invasive and arthroscopic surgery,” Dr. Roberts said. “The new hip replacement surgical technique (see related story) is an example of that. It’s all about minimizing pain and decreasing recovery time for our patients. That’s our goal.”
A former high school athlete who is still very active, Dr. Roberts is board-certified in orthopedic surgery and also has a Certificate of Added Qualifications in sports medicine from the American Board of Family Medicine. It’s not unusual to see him providing sports medicine on the sidelines of a local sporting event. He still enjoys playing the occasional game of pickup basketball, golf, hunting and wake-boarding.
Dr. Roberts grew up in Celina, located in Clay County near the Kentucky border, and it’s no accident he wound up “coming home.”
“I alway loved the area and the people. It was always my dream to return home to this area” Dr. Roberts said. “I never seriously considered anywhere else. This is home. It’s good to know that many of my patients are friends and neighbors. At Tier 1, we try to treat our patients like family.”
Dr. Roberts said he gets a great deal of satisfaction with his job.
“The most rewarding thing about being an orthopedist is the patients. I have wonderful patients,” Dr. Roberts said, “and seeing them regain their mobility and function is a great thing. There is no greater satisfaction than seeing someone who was almost wheelchair bound walk into the office with a smile on their face.”
