Elizabeth C. Gardner, MD

Elizabeth Gardner, MD, is a Yale Medicine orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and arthroscopy. Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure done with a thin, flexible tube equipped with tiny instruments on the end to view, diagnose, and treat problems inside the knee, shoulder, and other joints.

Dr. Gardner, an associate professor of orthopaedics at Yale School of Medicine, blends her love for medicine and for sports. As a Yale undergraduate, she played varsity field hockey and was captain of the women’s lacrosse team. She was recognized as an All-Ivy and Academic All-American player. After visiting Yale Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation for the first time as a surgical patient, she decided on the spot she wanted to be an orthopaedic surgeon. She spent her undergraduate summers shadowing physicians in the clinics and working in the research labs under the tutelage of mentor Peter Jokl, MD, who participated in the first arthroscopy surgery in Connecticut.

Now, Dr. Gardner uses the latest surgical and nonsurgical tools and techniques to treat Yale Medicine patients of all ages—athletes and non-athletes alike—for everything from ACL tears to shoulder pain. She is also head team physician/orthopaedic surgeon for Yale University Athletics and medical director for the Southern Connecticut State University Masters in Athletic Training program. Her goal is to find the best possible treatment and get patients back to their sports or other activities as quickly as possible.

She also has a keen interest in preventing injuries and surgeries—especially among young people. Even with the most advanced surgical procedures, the best treatment for any injury is prevention. “The importance of exercise and activity cannot be understated, both physically and emotionally," says Dr. Gardner. "My job is to keep patients out there doing what they love!”

Proper training and conditioning can help. Dr. Gardner is working with other Yale Medicine sports medicine specialists to educate and train coaches in Connecticut’s high schools and colleges to help their athletes avoid injuries—or to recover quickly from them. She believes this work will help her meet her goal of providing the most innovative surgeries, while also working to keep as many people as possible out of the operating room in the first place.