Dr. John Bargren, MD Spotlight

Tacoma Orthopedic Surgeon & Sports Medicine Doctor

Dr. John Bargren enjoys wake boarding, and playing the guitar, piano and trombone. He loves to travel. His last big excursion was to South Africa. His coolest activity? Heli-skiing! Dr. Bargen denies that he jumps from the helicopter into the coveted fresh powder. Rather he plays it safe, waiting for the aircraft to land before he exits and skis down the slopes.

At home, Dr. Bargren grows his own vegetables. He enjoys spending time with his family. This heli-skiing, family man holds a lifelong fascination with function and form.

A Passion for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

“Orthopedics has sockets, screws and bolts and I wanted to know how they work,” Dr. Bargren recalls when speaking about what drew him to medicine.

Dr. Bargren’s passion for orthopedic medicine began when he studied mechanical engineering. He realized the human body works in a similar way. Dr. Bargren spent his residency at Columbia University Medical Center’s New York Orthopedic Hospital and held fellowships in London and New York City.

His favorite part about being a doctor is helping people. Across his four decades of experience, mostly here in Tacoma, Dr. Bargren has seen how medicine has changed to better peoples’ lives.

The biggest change in Dr. Bargren’s medical career has been the advent of joint replacements. While an accomplished joint-replacement surgeon, Dr. Bargren remains amazed at the things joint-replacement patients can do. And how joint replacement can help someone who cannot walk and allow them to walk again.

Dr. Bargren is passionate about innovation in sports medicine. He embraces therapies and medical protocols to help his patients regain function and improve physical health. He loves watching his patients return to playing sports that they love.

Fan of His Family

A renaissance man of sorts, Dr. Bargren likes to learn about history and his own ancestry. Dr. Bargren’s parents were Swedish immigrants. Because of this Dr. Bargren is interested in his Swedish heritage. If he could travel to any time period he would like to see Viking inhabited Stockholm in the tenth and eleventh centuries. If he could meet any person in history it would be Swedish General and King Gustavus Adolphus who helped defend the Swedish Kingdom and made it one of the great powers in Europe.