An accomplished orthopedic researcher and surgeon, John Frauens, MD, currently serves as the president and CEO of SoftJoint, Inc., a synthetic cartilage research and development company with offices in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Before initiating his career, he graduated from Temple University with his bachelor of arts in physical therapy and subsequently earned his doctorate from the academic institution’s School of Medicine. Dr. John Frauens then completed a surgical internship at Temple University Hospital, followed by an orthopedic rehabilitation fellowship and an orthopedics and rehabilitation residency at the University of Virginia Medical Center. There, he also went on to fulfill the obligations of an additional orthopedic fellowship, this one in adult reconstructive surgery.
After completing his training in 1984, Dr. John Frauens joined the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Honolulu, where he began as a staff orthopedic surgeon but quickly rose to the positions of chief of orthopedic surgery and member of the Executive Committee. In that same year, Dr. Frauens assumed responsibilities at Kaiser’s Total Joint Service practice as director, a position he would hold for more than 25 years.
Over the course of his career, Dr. John Frauens performed more than 3,000 joint replacements and maintained one of the lowest surgery complications rates within the Kaiser organization. In 2010, he retired from Kaiser, turning his focus to operating SoftJoint, Inc., and providing volunteer orthopedic care to individuals incarcerated throughout Hawaii.
