Dror Paley, MD, FRCSC, is the CEO, Founder, and Medical Director of the Paley Orthopedic and Spine Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2009 to present.
Dr. Paley has grown the Paley Institute to 29 surgeons over the past 16 years, recruiting the best of the best in every subspecialty of Orthopedic Surgery. He also founded satellites in Europe, Asia, and South America: Paley European Institute in Warsaw, Poland (2018); Paley Middle East Clinic, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2023); and Instituto Paley Latino America (2024) in Medellín, Colombia.
The Paley Institute is the world’s largest orthopedic medical tourism center, treating patients from 110 countries and all 50 states. Dr. Paley speaks, lectures, reads, and writes in 6 languages and is conversant in 4 more.
He was the Founder and Director of the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics in Baltimore (2001–2009), Professor & Chief of Pediatric Orthopedics at the University of Maryland (1987–2001), and Associate Staff at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada (1987).
He completed three years of subspecialty fellowship training in Pediatric Orthopedics, Hand Surgery, Trauma Surgery, and Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Surgery (1985–1987). He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Toronto (1980–1985) and his internship at Johns Hopkins (1979–1980). He received his medical degree from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1979.
He was Professor of Orthopedics at the University of Maryland (1987–2001) and Adjunct Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and consultant at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto (2010–2014). He currently holds academic appointments as a Professor of Orthopedics at the University of Vermont and Florida Atlantic University.
He sits on the Board of Governors of St. Mary’s Medical Center and is a board member of The Lord’s Place. He has performed over 25,000 surgeries and runs the Paley and unLIMBited Foundations, conducting mission trips around the world.
Dr. Paley is internationally recognized for his expertise in limb lengthening and reconstruction. He trained under the guidance of Prof. Gavril Ilizarov during multiple visits to Kurgan, Soviet Union. He introduced the Ilizarov method to the US and Canada in 1987 and was instrumental in its dissemination across Northern Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Africa.
He was the Founder and first President of the Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society (1989) and the International Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society (2015).
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Maryland Gubernatorial Citation (1990), Pauwel’s Medal in Clinical Biomechanics (1997), best paper/poster awards by SICOT, AAOS, POSNA, AORS, best illustrated medical textbook (2003), Health Professional of the Year (2011), Health Hero of the Year (2013), and Florida Most Influential Business Leader (2019–2024). He was also named a Living Legend and most influential business leader in Palm Beach by Palm Beach Illustrated for the past three consecutive years.
Most recently (2025), he received St. Mary’s Medical Center Highest Service Award and was inducted into the LLRS Hall of Fame.
He served as the Orthopedic Surgeon to the White House from 2017 to 2021 and was reappointed in 2025.
He has published 200 peer-reviewed articles, 73 book chapters, 50 video productions, and 9 books, most notably Congenital Femoral Deficiency (2023) and Principles of Deformity Correction (Springer, 2002, 2005). The CORA method of deformity analysis described in this text has become the gold standard for deformity planning in orthopedics.
Dr. Paley developed over 100 surgical procedures, including: SUPERhip, SUPERknee, SUPERankle, SHORDT, Paley-Weber patelloplasty, ulnarization, Paley Rotationplasty, modified Judet quadricepsplasty, Paley Cross Union for CPT, MHE forearm interosseous correction, four-segment achondroplasia lengthening, and many others.
He has had an interest in Perthes disease since 1989, when he first developed the method of articulated hip distraction. He also developed a method to reshape the femoral head using Femoral Head Reduction Osteotomy.
He developed the Multiplier method for predicting leg length discrepancy and timing of epiphysiodesis, now available as the Paley Growth Multiplier App on Android and iOS.
He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and has four grown children: Benjamin, Jonathan, Aviva, and Daelan; and three grandchildren: Dalia, Jack, and Lev.
His hobbies include reading history, skiing, road and mountain biking, rock climbing, and scuba diving.
