Dr. Vert Mooney
Link to CV

Vert Mooney, MD, QME
Medical Director
vertm@spineandsport.com

Dr. Vert Mooney received his Orthopaedic Surgery training at the University of Pittsburgh between 1960 and 1964, after earning his Medical Doctorate in 1957 from Columbia University. Dr. Mooney was Board Certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery in 1967 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1989, Dr. Mooney was named one of the 20 most distinguished Orthopedic Surgeons in the Town & Country Magazine Annual Survey. He also served an appointment by Governor Pete Wilson to the California Industrial Medical Council.

From June 1991 to July 1998, Dr. Mooney served as Medical Director of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) OrthoMed Center in La Jolla, CA. He has over 30 years of experience in general orthopedics and spine care, including from 1977 to 1988 at Parkland Hospital in Dallas where he was Chief of Orthopedic Surgery and also Director of its Orthopedic Training Program, and Professor of Orthopedics at the University of California, Irvine from 1988 to 1991. Dr. Mooney is a nationally recognized medical researcher who has conducted studies in many areas related to Orthopedics. He has written close to 200 journal articles and abstracts, over 30 chapters for medical texts, and in the past decade has been invited to speak at over 200 medical conferences throughout the world. Dr. Mooney currently is a Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Mark Mathiesen
CEO and CFO
markm@spineandsport.com

Mark Mathiesen is an attorney and CPA who is principally responsible for the business, financial and legal operations of MDRS. Mark earned a B.A. degree in economics from UCLA in 1988 and graduated from the Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, Texas in 1996, finishing in the top ten percent of his class. Prior to law school, he was a CPA with Ernst & Young in Palo Alto, California. Mark practiced business and intellectual property law with a large San Diego firm, and he was instrumental in the formation and structuring of MDRS. He has been involved with MDRS since its inception as its CFO and legal counsel primarily working toward the development of new clinics and joint ventures. Recognizing the need to build a solid infrastructure in order to continue the successful and systematic growth of the company, MDRS hired Mark as its first full time CEO in 2001.

Dr. Verna is a chiropractor recognized as an expert in the field of workers' compensation and cost containment related to low back pain and disability. He is a Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME), Certified Industrial Injury Evaluator and an Independent Medical Examiner for the State of California. His professional experience has included consulting in the fields of industrial medicine, functional capacity assessments, spinal rehabilitation, injury prevention and risk management. For the past five years, he has served as Defensive Tactics Consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department, Arrest and Control Unit. The LAPD's Arrest and Control program has taken a scientific approach to injury prevention for its officers and suspects. The program utilized the skills of a civilian panel of physicians and martial artists in analyzing statistics and developing the prevention curriculum. In the past several years, the program has gained national attention, including an article in Time Magazine in September 1997. Dr. Verna is the co-founder of the National Institute for Spinal Rehabilitation (NISR), a nationwide quality assurance association for rehabilitation providers. NISR was founded in 1995 and promotes standardization, quality assurance and cost containment in the field of spinal rehabilitation. Most recently, Dr. Verna was awarded a prestigious grant by the National Institute of Health to assess the efficacy of a variable angle roman chair device known as BackStrongä for improved exercise training and increased functional capacity for the treatment of chronic low back pain. Dr. Verna serves as the VP of Operations for MDRS and also spends considerable time working with the U.S. Spine & Sport Foundation, a non-profit research and education foundation, on various research, education and grants.

Mike Biggs
Vice President Busniess Development
mikeb@spineandsport.com