A pioneer in the local sports medicine specialization, Dr. Michael Scarpone has cared for athletes of the Ohio Valley for more than 20 years.
Scarpone is an assistant professor of orthopedic medicine, division of sports medicine, with Drexel University School of Medicine, Allegheny General Hospital campus. He is also medical director of Trinity Sports Medicine, a practice that focuses on training and rehabilitating athletes, physical therapy, and cutting-edge regenerative medicine. Through his leadership, the practice received a grant to build a concussion laboratory featuring state-of-the art equipment able to diagnose and rehabilitate concussions. Expected to be completed in March, the laboratory will boost health care offerings for Jefferson County and beyond. In addition, Scarpone serves as Jefferson County coroner.
Active in teaching and research, Scarpone lectures across the country on musculoskeletal ultrasound and regenerative medicine procedures and techniques. Locally, he has offered his expertise to Franciscan University science students led by Dr. Dan Kuebler, professor of biology. The students analyze bone marrow and fat-derived stem cells from biological samples Scarpone provides, seeking better treatment plans for patients suffering from osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal injuries. The team is also studying placental tissue, which has similar growth factors as a patient’s own growth factors in platelets, and they are developing devices to isolate stem cells from biological tissues more efficiently. Scarpone and Kuebler have collaborated on two papers about their findings, and they are working with the University’s Computer Science Department to form a database that will track patients’ clinical outcomes.
Since 1999, Scarpone has served as a team physician for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has done stem cell procedures on several Major League Baseball players with good results, with one high-profile player needing only six weeks’ recovery time after a placental stem cell treatment.
Scarpone and his wife, Dina, have three grown children, Danielle (and husband, Luke), Rebecca, and Nathan, and reside in Bloomingdale.
