Friday, October 12, 2007

Former UGA star to lead health-care network

Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Justin Rubner Staff Writer

Winning ways: Team Doctors’ lineup of pros includes Dr. Robert Gadlage, from left, former NFL quarterback Eric Zeier, Dr. Charles Garten and Dr. Randy Cronic.

As a professional quarterback, Eric Zeier experienced his share of serious injuries -- from a dislocated knee to separated rib cartilage.

Unlike his fans, though, he had super-quick access to the nation's top doctors.

Seven years removed from the National Football League, Zeier, the away-game color analyst for the Georgia Bulldogs and former star quarterback for The University of Georgia, is looking to bring that same kind of health care to non-athletes. He's been tapped to lead Atlanta-based Team Doctors, a new network of medical professionals. The network contains only doctors who treat professional athletes and promises to provide customers with quick access to in-demand doctors -- from oncologists to orthopedic surgeons.

It's like being friends with 200 of the best doctors in the country, Zeier says.

Team Doctors sees a market with executive managers, attorneys and other high-net-worth individuals. The company was formed due to complaints from executives at having to wait so long to get treatment. Why couldn't an executive -- whose health is just as important to a company's bottom line as an athlete's is to a team's success -- get sports-star-like treatment, wondered founder Dr. Bob Gadlage, a plastic surgeon and ear, nose and throat specialist who works with the Atlanta Braves.

"You will be treated just like a player," says Zeier, who at one point held the Southeastern Conference's all-time passing record.

Team Doctors has signed sports doctors in every major city in the country. Those doctors in turn qualify their inner circle of trusted associates.

Customers, who pay initiation fees and yearly dues, get preferred access to the sprawling network. For the first 200 customers, the initiation fee of $2,500 is waived. Dues are $2,500 a year. For that price, Team Doctors promises same-day appointments, short waits at doctors' offices, access to specialists within 72 hours, and instant access to medical records at any networked doctor's office.

The company, Zeier says, is unique. The closest competition is Baltimore, Md.-based PinnacleCare, which charges customers up to $25,000 a year to coordinate health care.

The trend is taking off with elite customers who are willing to shell out top dollar to get more personalized care.

Zeier isn't only CEO, he's a member. The former Browns, Ravens and Buccaneers quarterback, walking with a slight limp, just had surgery with a Team Doctors physician to re-align his kneecap -- with no wait time. Zeier says he's missed that kind of treatment since retiring from the NFL.

"I got to live that life for six years when I was playing," said Zeier. "It's a very good way to be taken care of."

Quickness isn't the only thing the company promises. Physicians who have worked on top athletes are some of the best-trained in the field. It was a sports doctor, after all, who is credited with not only saving the life of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett in September but also for performing a rare procedure that may let him gain full movement again. Everett suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury after hitting a Denver Broncos special teams player. Bills spinal specialist Dr. Andrew Cappuccino infused cold fluids in Everett's vertebrae, a procedure that had been viewed as experimental. Doctors in the company's network, Zeier says, have written papers on the controversial subject.

It was a procedure many say would never have been performed on a non-athlete.

Zeier, a former sales executive at the now bankrupt HomeBanc Corp., will lead Team Doctors.

But the concept is the brainchild of Gadlage. He has worked with the network for years. But the network has never been formalized, Gadlage says. Nor has it been available to non-athletes.

While most doctors are good, Gadlage says doctors who work on professional athletes are a cut above.

"We're used to working under the gun to get people back on the field," he says. Or, in Team Doctors' case, the boardroom.

Reach Rubner at jrubner@bizjournals.com.

 

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