Prior to settling in Colorado in 2011, Dr. Mei-Dan lived, trained and practiced medicine in four different continents. He completed a sports trauma surgery fellowship at the ISAKOS Center in Barcelona, Spain, as well as a fellowship in Auckland, New Zealand specializing in arthroscopic hip preservation surgery. He then went on to complete two more hip preservation fellowships in Australia and England. Completing four specialized fellowships in sports medicine and hip preservation has strengthened Dr. Mei-Dan’s knowledge and interest in hip arthroscopy, femur and pelvis realignment procedures, and cartilage regeneration techniques.
In August 2013, Dr. Mei-Dan established one of the only hip preservation fellowships in the USA offering significant exposure to both arthroscopic and open hip procedures. After graduating, many CU Hip Preservation fellows then went on to establish similar comprehensive and successful Hip Preservation practices across the country, from respected academic institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis, MO to regional centers in Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, and Michigan.
Over the past decade, Dr. Mei-Dan served as faculty in numerous workshops, labs and instructional courses during professional hip preservation and sports surgery meetings, such as the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS), the International Society for Hip Preservation (ISHA), the American Academy of Orthopedic surgeons (AAOS), The American Academy of Sports Surgery (AOSSM) and the European Federation of the National Associations of Sports Traumatology (EFOST). He was elected by the EFOST to be one of two distinguished surgeons to start the first prestigious Traveling Fellowship between Europe and USA. In 2010 he was invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to Lausanne, Switzerland to be one of selected world experts in the field of platelet rich plasma (PRP) in order to write up a consensus statement regarding its use in sports events.
Working in this field since 2006, Dr. Mei-Dan has established a platelet rich plasma (PRP) clinical and research lab on three continents, using this modality both as a conservative treatment measure and adjuvant to many of his surgical techniques.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Mei-Dan has been a prolific clinician-scientist producing over 125 peer review publications, numerous book chapters, and is the author/editor of the first textbook of its topic, Adventure and Extreme Sports Injuries. As an academic-oriented surgeon, many of these research projects are prospective randomized controlled studies, the highest level of evidence in medicine. As a result, these global multi-center projects and revolutionary surgical techniques direct current practice and treatment strategies.
Juxtaposed to his medical career, Dr. Mei-Dan is a world-renowned extreme sports athlete. For over 20 years he has dedicated personal development and medical research and support toward rock and ice climbing, mountaineering, wingsuit flying, downhill mountain biking, white water kayaking, and B.A.S.E. jumping.
As a prior Red-Bull athlete, he has executed many global, media-covered stunts. This personal interest has fostered a unique research track focusing on orthopedic, mental, and hormonal dimensions characterized in extreme sports athletes. In June, 2014, Dr. Mei-Dan organized the Inaugural International Adventure Sports Medicine Congress, under the University of Colorado/CU Sports Medicine umbrella, and brought together health care providers from 5 continents and 13 countries to Boulder. The meeting highlighted and discussed the prevention, epidemiology, treatment and rehabilitation of adventure and extreme sports injuries generating national and global medical and popular media interest. This meeting has continued to grow over the years, establishing the University of Colorado as the international center for Extreme Sports Medicine.