By Lauren Johnson
On the sidelines and in the operating room, the Orthopaedic Clinic continues a 50-year legacy of community service.
Nearly 40 years ago, former Auburn Mayor Bill Ham, who served from 1998 to 2018, was playing basketball when a hard fall resulted in a devastating compound fracture in his leg, with the bone piercing through the skin. Under the care of former Orthopaedic Clinic surgeon Dr. Ronald Hillyer, Ham’s leg is strong and functional today.
Ham has continued to trust the clinic in Opelika and returned to see current Orthopaedic Clinic surgeon Dr. Trent Wilson for surgical care involving his shoulder and hands. Wilson also performed knee surgery for Ham’s son.
“In my former role as mayor, there are about five tools that are utilized to recruit new businesses, new industries and new people to the area. Certainly, healthcare is one of those. We could say you don’t have to travel to Birmingham, Montgomery or elsewhere for excellent orthopedic care, and that means a lot,” says Ham.
At the heart of the Orthopaedic Clinic is a commitment to put patients first by ensuring access to the comprehensive services they need right here in East Alabama. As a true community practice, the clinic cares for patients of all ages and treats a wide range of orthopedic conditions—from fracture care and degenerative issues in older adults to sports injuries in youth, elite athletes and weekend warriors.
No matter the diagnosis, the Orthopaedic Clinic has been dedicated for the last 50 years to provide the high quality, cutting-edge orthopedic care patients would expect to find at any major medical clinic in the country.
Twelve years ago, former Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller, who served from 2004 to 2025, was leaving his house when he slipped on the frozen steps, resulting in a hospital visit for a broken leg. He was seen by former Orthopaedic Clinic surgeon Dr. David Scott who fixed him up with a titanium rod in his lower leg.
“Over the last 50 years, their physicians, staff and therapists have built and earned an outstanding reputation for patient care, for empathy, for community involvement with youth sports and many other things,” says Fuller. “There have been so many great physicians there over the years…These men have certainly earned my respect and my admiration. I’ve been there many times as a patient, and they have always taken good care of me.”
Fuller’s wife, Laura, is an active pickleball player and has been treated at the Orthopaedic Clinic numerous times. She wouldn’t think of going anywhere else for care.
In addition to a surgical volume that exceeds 85 percent of orthopedic surgeons nationwide, the Orthopaedic Clinic has 64 years of combined experience among the current four surgeons – Adam Dooley, Frazier Jones, Ryan Palmer and Trent Wilson. Their wealth of experience means better care for their patients.
“This isn’t just a business,” says Terry Rosenthal, Orthopaedic Clinic CEO. “We’re providing a service that people need. When people come to an orthopedic surgeon, it’s generally because they’re in pain, they have an issue and they’re looking for someone to help them. That’s what we do here. Our job is to serve people, trying to get them on the road to recovery, whether it be through surgical intervention or through physical therapy. For me to be a part of that, involved in the community and helping people, it’s a tremendous honor, and I love it.”
Celebrating 50 Years
In 1976, Dr. Ray Godsil branched out from the Opelika Surgical Clinic, which focused on general surgery, to provide something new for the community. Godsil had a vision to open a clinic that specialized and focused on orthopedic care, originally called the Orthopaedic Clinic of East Alabama.
As the practice expanded, Godsil, Dr. Dick Herrick and Dr. Jon Widener brought on several other partners, including Dr. Franklin Thomas in 1979 to 2006, Dr. James Whatley in 1979 to 2016 and Dr. Ronald Hillyer in 1980 to 2016.
“Dr. Godsil was the guiding force in getting orthopedics going in this area in Lee County. Before that, patients had to leave town,” says Rosenthal.
Surgeons Whatley and Hillyer grew up in the Opelika area and felt the call to orthopedics because they could help improve people’s lives by fixing physical conditions. After completing their schooling and training from prestigious institutions, they returned to serve their community.
“I was really fortunate to practice with the guys that I did. We got along really well. We had a like-mindedness about how to practice and how to care for patients. All of them became some of my very best friends,” says Whatley. “I thoroughly enjoyed working with all the people at the hospital, the nurses on the orthopedic floor, the nurses in the operating rooms and the nurses in the recovery room. I feel blessed to have been able to practice there as long as I did.”
Whatley was a general orthopedic surgeon, who treated everything from ligament repair and total joints to sports injuries and trauma. While Hillyer had an emphasis on hand surgery, he was also a general orthopedic surgeon. He remembers seeing a variety of trauma cases like sawmill and farming accidents and even injuries from package bombs that exploded in the patient’s hands.
One thing that Whatley will never forget is the impression patients of faith had on him before an operation, specifically older patients with a possibility of mortality from the surgery.
“I can remember going into the rooms and sitting down and talking to them and their family about it,” says Whatley. “They all had a peace about facing whatever they were going to face, and it put me at ease.”
In 1997, when CEO Terry Rosenthal was a graduate assistant at Auburn University, he was hired by the clinic to establish a sports medicine program. Rosenthal accepted the challenge and began visiting schools in Lee County and surrounding counties on a weekly basis, checking on their athletes and making appointments with physicians at the clinic.
The clinic wanted to provide a service for these athletes in small rural areas who don’t have easy access to healthcare. From there, the program grew with the team serving schools in seven counties.
After Rosenthal completed his master’s program at Auburn, his predecessor Marion Fuller, who led the clinic for 29 years, offered him a full-time position running the sports medicine program. His roles expanded to include oversight of the clinical staff (X-ray, medical assistants and casting), and in 2010 after Fuller retired, Rosenthal stepped into the position of CEO.
In 2004, the clinic added in-house MRI and in-house physical therapy, creating a one-stop, central location for patients. The clinic is still in the original building on 121 North 20th Street, but with these additions came building expansions and a new wing.
The clinic has four physical therapists and four physical therapy assistants.
“Physical therapists are an integral part of our practice,” says Dr. Frazier Jones. “It’s pretty unusual for us to have a patient that has had any exposure to our therapist that ever wants to go anywhere else. They take a very personable approach to the therapy and are very good at it.”
Over the years rheumatology and podiatry came and left the clinic, and around 2015, a bone health program was established and remains today to diagnose and treat patients with osteopenia and osteoporosis.
As surgeons moved or retired, the clinic has maintained four to five expert surgeons, bringing in a few specialists along the way. After the original six came Dr. David Scott 1991-2012 (spine specialist), Dr. Frazier Jones 1997-Present (spine specialist), Dr. Todd Sheils 2004-2026 (joint specialist), Dr. Trent Wilson 2013-Present (sports medicine), Dr. Ryan Palmer 2014-Present, Dr. Adam Dooley 2016-Present (sports medicine) and Dr. Geoffrey Hancey 2016-2021.
The surgeons over the years have seen numerous advancements in the field. X-rays are now digital that once were developed on physical film. Documentation and patient charts were all on paper. Now they’re available digitally at the touch of a button. AI is also being incorporated in documentation and billing processes to help with efficiency.
MRI imaging is faster with crisper images, appliances like rods, pins and prostheses have improved, and patients are spending less time in the hospital bed recovering from surgery.
“We’ve discovered that the sooner a patient can become more mobile the better it is,” says Hillyer.
“In the old days, like when I first came out of training 30 years ago, you might have a knee replacement in the hospital for several days,” adds Jones . “Nowadays, we’re either doing them as outpatients or doing them as a 23-hour admit. The combination of anesthesia, moving people along quicker and being more aggressive about mobilization has drastically changed the landscape of how people are treated.”
The Doors are Always Open
Today the clinic offers services for sports medicine, pediatric orthopaedics, neck, back, hand and extremities, shoulder, hips, knees, foot and ankle, physical therapy, and bone health. A surgeon is on call 24/7 at the hospital for all patients needing orthopedic care.
In addition to being on the active medical staff at East Alabama Medical Center, all four physicians are involved with the East Alabama Ambulatory Surgery Center, an outpatient surgical center at the Auburn Medical Pavilion, providing more surgical opportunities as the hospital only has so many OR spots available.
The clinic is dedicated to serving high school athletes, which includes standing on the sidelines at Friday night football games. A physician or trainer can respond immediately to an injury, assess them on the field and get them to the hospital.
Before joining the clinic as a surgeon in 2013, Wilson, who was born and raised in Auburn, was a patient of the Orthopaedic Clinic, needing treatment for a hand fracture, broken collarbone and torn ACL.
“The Orthopaedic Clinic was there when I needed them back in the 90s, and we’re still able to provide the same kind of care to athletes and people in the community who need us now,” says Wilson. “I love having the opportunity to take care of people who are broken or injured, and put them back together, getting them back to their active lifestyle again.”
The Orthopaedic Clinic is always looking to the future, exploring how to provide the best care to the community while continuing the legacy that the previous surgeons established. The surgeons, physical therapists and physical therapy assistants are dedicated to providing compassionate care and bringing the newest innovations in healthcare to the communities they serve.
“We want to continue the legacy of taking care of the community, being here for the community and serving the community, whether it be covering football games on a Friday night, doing free physicals for athletic departments at different schools or anything else,” says Dooley.
The clinic continues to stay at the forefront of the latest technology and approaches for surgery. This includes enhanced recovery protocols and outpatient joint replacements as well as minimally invasive muscle and tissue sparing approaches like the subvastus approach for knee replacement and anterior hip replacement.
These advances in recovery, rehabilitation and technology have shown improvements in patient outcomes with easier recovery and quicker mobilization.
“We’re trying to provide the most minimally invasive treatment that we can to effectively take care of the problem, minimizing incisions, swelling, scarring and soft tissue damage, allowing people to have a quicker recovery. We aim to provide the best, most cutting-edge orthopedic care that you can find anywhere in the country, right here in East Alabama,” says Wilson.
While the art of medicine and surgery can’t be replaced by robotics or AI, Wilson explains that robotics and new technology are meant to help with preoperative planning and implant placements.
The Orthopaedic Clinic surgeons plan to incorporate robotic technology for knee replacements and computer assisted navigation for hip replacements in 2026. Robotics and navigation tools for knee and hip surgeries help provide accuracy and precise placement of the cup and stem on a hip replacement and the resurfacing components on the femur and tibia for knee replacements.
“In orthopedics, for the most part, you’re able to improve people’s quality of life from chronic issues, such as arthritis or even a major injury, that need acute care. We’re able to get them back to their pre-injury performance,” says Dooley. “Seeing that from start to finish is rewarding.”
