E81: Renaissance Orthopaedics: Redefining Knee and Hip Replacement in Pittsburgh

What makes Dr. Noelle DiGioia Guthrie with Renaissance Orthopaedics a good neighbor? 

Mobility matters at every age. Dr. Noelle DiGioia Guthrie of Renaissance Orthopedics joins us to challenge common misconceptions about joint replacement surgery while sharing her unique journey from college lacrosse player to orthopedic surgeon.

As a Pittsburgh native who returned home after training in Philadelphia, Dr. Noelle brings specialized expertise in knee and hip replacements to her family's practice. She directly addresses the fears many patients have about painful recoveries, especially for knee replacements, explaining how modern pain management approaches and comprehensive patient education have transformed the experience. Perhaps most importantly, she debunks the myth that advanced age disqualifies someone from joint replacement, emphasizing that quality of life should drive these decisions.

What makes Renaissance Orthopedics truly special is its status as a thriving independent practice in an era of healthcare consolidation. This father-daughter practice maintains a personalized approach where patients remain at the center of care decisions. Dr. Noelle speaks candidly about the privilege of joining the practice her father built and continuing its legacy of patient-focused orthopedic care. The smaller practice setting allows for continuity of care that larger institutions often struggle to provide.

Beyond her surgical expertise, we get glimpses of Dr. Noelle's life outside the operating room—raising three young children, enjoying tennis (which draws on skills similar to her lacrosse background), and practicing yoga. Her genuine connection to the Pittsburgh community shines through as she expresses gratitude for being able to serve her hometown.

Ready to reconsider what you know about joint replacement? Connect with Renaissance Orthopedics through their website, social media, or by contacting Dr. Noelle directly at [e-mail] to learn how improved mobility might change your quality of life.

To learn more about Renaissance Orthopaedics go to: 

https://www.pittsburghboneandjoint.com/

Renaissance Orthopaedics and The Bone and Joint Center of Magee Women's Hospital of UPMC

[phone] 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a total kneeor hip replacement?
A resource may be closer thanyou think.
Today I have the pleasure ofspeaking with your good neighbor
, Noelle DeGioia GutGuffrey,with Renaissance Orthopedics.
Noelle, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's going well, thank you.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thanks for being here .
We're excited to learn allabout you and your business, so
please tell us more about yourpractice.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Sure, so by training.
I'm an orthopedic surgeon.
I specialize in total jointreplacement, specifically knee
and hip replacement, as youmentioned, obviously meaning I
went through medical school anddid orthopedic residency in
Philadelphia, but I'm originallyfrom Pittsburgh, born and

(01:02):
raised, and then, afterresidency, I made my way back to
Pittsburgh and completed my oneyear total joint replacement
fellowship here at McGee Women'sHospital, which is where I'm
located specifically.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Excellent.
How did you get into thisbusiness?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, good question.
I mean I have a interesting wayintroduced it number one and
secondly kind of showed us thatthe patients who he can take
care of did really well and werereally happy with the outcome
of their surgeries and how itchanged the quality of their
life after surgery.
So I think that was my firstintroduction and then, along

(02:02):
with that, I've always beenreally interested in sports and
an athlete.
I played college lacrosse andyou know, I think that makes you
really in tune with yourmusculoskeletal system.
And then, you know, jumping offfrom those two things, when I
went to medical school I wasdefinitely interested in
orthopedics.
So that's how I got to where.
I am, you know, interested inorthopedics.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Very cool.
So what are some myths or maybemisconceptions in this industry
?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Hmm, Great question.
I think some misconceptions arethat total joint replacement
can be really painful and reallya hard recovery, particularly
knee replacements.
I think a lot of people havemisconceptions and hear people's

(02:52):
kind of horror stories aboutgoing through the rehab after a
total knee replacement.
But we have a lot of ways thesedays of very good pain
management and also just ourteam here is really awesome from
you know, when we start talkingto you at your first
appointment till after you getyour surgery, years after you

(03:12):
get your surgery, to help you,guide you through the process
and also give you a lot ofeducation and tools to help make
the experience the best that itcan be.
So I think that's one of the bigmisconceptions, particularly
about having a total knee.
I also think anothermisconception people have is
that they might be like too old.
You know we have patients whocome in who are in their 80s or

(03:33):
90s and think that they're quote, too old to have a joint
replacement.
But you know if it's reallylimiting your quality of life
and you're, you know, healthyenough to have surgery then, we
try to.
We try to work with you and seewhat we can do.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I love that.
I'm sure that you guys are theanswer to a lot of pain problems
that people might be havingwith their mobility concerns and
things, so the work that you'redoing in the community is so
important.
So who are your targetcustomers then, and how are you
attracting them to RenaissanceOrthopedics?

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, so I mean I'm an orthopedic surgeon by
training.
So we do general orthopedics inour five years of residency, so
you know I'm trained ineverything.
But more specifically I dealwith hip and knee arthritis
mostly, which causes people tohave joint replacement.
So typically it's patients alittle bit, you know older, you

(04:32):
know forties, fifties plus, whoare you know older, you know 40s
, 50s plus, who are you know,experiencing pain from
osteoarthritis or other types ofarthritis.
But I do see some youngerpatients with sports injuries or
other fracture injuries.
So it does run the gamut, butI'd say most of our target
audience is an older population.

(04:54):
And then our biggest way of like, our biggest way of marketing
is the second part of yourquestion.
I think I mean a big way ofmarketing for us is word of
mouth.
I mean I think Pittsburgh, asyou can see, it's, as you know,
probably it's one degree ofconnection between anyone.
So word of mouth is huge.
You know we have patients whodo really well after surgery and

(05:16):
enjoy you know our practiceswith really well run and um good
people through and through whoreally care about um treating
patients Um.
So when they talk about thatpeople are, you know, come to
see us.
Um, otherwise we're on.
You know we're on social media,obviously online.
We have a great website.
Obviously, we work at a UPMChospital, so we have some UPMC

(05:39):
affiliations with those types ofthings.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
So, as you're educating people on the benefits
of surgery and kind of reducingthe stigma that it has to be
painful in recovery and thingslike that has to be painful and
recovery and things like that,have you ever thought about
possibly doing a podcast to getthe word out there and educate
people about what you do and howit could benefit them?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, like you mean like me specifically doing a
podcast personally?
Yeah, I mean, I haven't.
I think a lot of people do, weactually.
There's a lot of great podcastsfrom you know orthopedic
surgeons.
There's actually one.
Her name's Vonda Wright.
She used to be in Pittsburghand now she's down in Florida.
She has a really great one.
More, a lot focused on you knowwomen in the orthopedic

(06:25):
specialty but also caring forwomen specifically related to
musculoskeletal disorders.
I, I think at this point I'm,you know, at the point in my
career I'm really trying tobuild up my clinical practice.
So I don't know how much energyI have to focus on a podcast,
but I would like to at somepoint for sure.

(06:46):
I think it's definitely a goodway to educate people, for sure,
and have people ask questionsand and teach and connect with
people for sure and teach andconnect with people for sure,
absolutely so, outside of work.
what do you do for fun, noelle?
Yeah, so I have three kids,three young kids.
I have a daughter who's almostfive, who names Gabriella, and

(07:10):
then a three-year-old son namedAnthony, and then a one and a
half-year-old son named Henry.
So they take up a lot of mytime outside of work, which is
fun.
So we like to do things withthem.
We always are pretty activewith them, going on walks and
doing things with our family, sothat's a big part of it.
Otherwise, I like to playtennis.
I've actually, you know, afterplaying sports in college pretty

(07:34):
, very competitively.
I kind of it was nice to nothave to, um, you know, do that
fairly intense competitivenature of sports.
So I started to pick up likeyoga.
Um, I was a teacher at onepoint in Pittsburgh, which was
awesome.
Um, now I just do it, you know,recreationally myself, and then
I play tennis, which is nice,go for walks, yeah tennis and

(08:00):
you played lacrosse and you're asurgeon so

Speaker 2 (08:02):
the human-eye communication is unparalleled.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Everyone says did you playtennis in high school?
And I said no, but I playedlike a sport where you know it's
similar.
You have to see a ball andcatch it.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, in a small small area, so tennis is kind of
similar in that way.
Very cool.
So please tell our listenersone thing that they should
remember about Renaissanceorthopedics Let me think about
this.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
So I think what makes our practice so, our practice
is a private practice, which isvery unique these days because a
lot of private practices, youknow they're smaller and they're
being bought up by largerhealth systems.
But you know, we my it's my dadstarted his own private

(08:52):
practice and I joined him.
It's very unique that it'sstill alive.
I think by that nature it makesus a smaller practice and we
could be very personalized forour patients, meaning, you know,
providing personalized care andreally making sure the patient

(09:14):
is at the core of their care.
You know, and making sure wework as a team together to their
care, you know, and making surewe work as a team together to
provide them, you know, the bestexperience they can have, from
start to finish, may that befrom their first new patient
visit to after surgery or justgiving them options for
conservative care for theirarthritis.
I think that's really what wedo best.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
And I think our patients really appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Excellent, yeah, I love that you get to continue on
his legacy and share that withhim.
That's so special.
It is, I think.
I mean I tell everyone I'm in avery, I'm very, um lucky and
thankful for the position thatI'm in, because I have a great
mentor.
Not only is he an awesomedoctor and surgeon, but also my
dad that I, you know, can learnfrom and work with.
So it's been and you know, ourother doctors in our practice

(10:09):
too, have been great mentors forme too.
So I'm very thankful for theposition that I'm in, for sure.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, what a blessing , absolutely so how can our
listeners learn more aboutRenaissance Orthopedics?

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, so we actually have a really great website
pittsburghboneandjointcom, butit's a really great website.
You can call our office.
Our office is 412-683-7272.
Always call to ask questions.
If you have questions aboutbeing seen, email's a great way
to email me.
It's drnoelleatpfcusaorg, soyou can reach me directly if you

(10:50):
have any questions.
And then also our social mediaaccounts are great to follow.
They also have really goodeducation materials and
information about our practice.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Excellent.
Well, Noelle, we very muchappreciate your time today and
having you as a guest on theshow.
We wish you and the practicethe best moving forward.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Great Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
It's nice to be back inPittsburgh and, you know, be
part of the community again, forsure.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, we're happy to have you.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Great.
Thank you for listening to theGood Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPPittsburghcom.
That's GNPPittsburghcom, orcall 412-561-9956.