Department welcomes new PM&R faculty member
On April 26, 2021, Michael Wempe, MD, joined the department as an Assistant Professor, and started seeing patients in the M Health Fairview Clinics and Specialty Center in Burnsville, MN, on May 11. He is board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) as well as in PM&R Sports Medicine. Dr. Wemple’s clinical interests include spine care, musculoskeletal injuries, biomechanics, sports medicine, fluoroscopic-guided injections, ultrasound-guided injections, and regenerative medicine.
“I really like the idea of restoring function and improving quality of life,” Dr. Wempe said when asked about why he was attracted to physiatry. “We often see complicated cases, patients who have been to other providers and didn’t get the answers they were looking for.”
A graduate of the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine in Vermillion, Dr. Wempe (pictured at left) completed his PM&R residency at the University of Minnesota. He then completed a Sports Medicine Fellowship at John Peter Smith Health Network in Fort Worth, TX. Most recently, he was with Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, WI.
Dr. Wempe is excited about being back in an academic setting, “where new ideas are welcomed, appreciated and staying current is important,” he said. “I like to be part of improving the PM&R practice…doing the best we can for our patients.” He also likes the opportunity to help train the next generation of PM&R providers.
Before completing his medical training, Dr. Wempe served eight years in the United States Air Force. “The military is inherently a team-based system; those skills work well in PM&R because we collaborate with many different specialties,” he said. “In addition, there is little room for mistakes in the military, which taught me to search for what’s really going on in a patient.”
In his free time, Dr. Wempe enjoys skiing, soccer, traveling, trying new foods and beers of the world, and spending time with his wife and five children.
