Ken Trauner, MD

Chief Innovation Officer, The Permanente Medical Group

Ken Trauner’s background bridges both medicine and engineering. He earned dual undergraduate degrees in Biological Sciences and Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University before attending Harvard Medical School, where he graduated in 1990. During medical school, he took a year off to focus on engineering development, working on new surgical laser systems.

Following medical school, he completed his Orthopedic Residency at UC Davis and pursued two years of fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He later returned to UC Davis as an Assistant Professor specializing in Adult Reconstructive Orthopedics, with a focus on complex primary and revision total joint surgery. His academic research explored photochemistry as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and he collaborated with scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, playing a key role in establishing the National Science Foundation’s Center for Biophotonics.

After four years at UC Davis, he returned to the Bay Area and joined Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, where he continues to specialize in Adult Reconstructive Orthopedics. The flexibility of the Kaiser system has allowed him to balance clinical practice with ongoing academic and engineering endeavors. At Kaiser Oakland, he is part of a highly skilled team of orthopedic surgeons and remains committed to training residents from the St. Mary’s Orthopedic program.