Dr. Adil S. Ahmed, M.D.
Dr. Adil S. Ahmed, MD is a board-certified and dual-fellowship trained orthopaedic surgeon and the founder of Houston Upper Extremity Center. Dr. Ahmed's expertise allows him to provide comprehensive care for the entire upper extremity, from fingertip to scapula, all under one roof.
Whether treating a routine condition or a highly complex problem, his commitment remains the same: deliver expert surgical care with a level of attention and dedication that patients rarely experience elsewhere.
Meet Dr. Ahmed
Dr. Adil S. Ahmed, MD founded Houston Upper Extremity Center with a clear vision: to provide patients with a more personal, connected, and patient-focused journey in orthopaedic care. After training and practicing across multiple health systems in the United States and internationally, Dr. Ahmed sought to create a practice where patients feel seen and heard.
You see Dr. Ahmed at every visit — from consultation and diagnosis to treatment and recovery. His approach prioritizes communication, accessibility, and creating individualized care plans designed around each patient’s actual life: the work you do, the activities you want back, and the function you'll need years from now.
As a dual-fellowship trained hand surgeon and shoulder surgeon, Dr. Ahmed treats the everyday problems of the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder — carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, ganglion cyst, rotator cuff tears, biceps tendonitis, arthritis, and fractures. He also treats some of the most difficult conditions in the field, including microsurgical nerve repair and reconstruction, arthroscopic shoulder and elbow surgery, tendon transfers, joint replacement, neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, complex trauma, and revision surgery for patients whose earlier procedures did not succeed. Patients with straightforward problems get focused, efficient care. Patients who have been told nothing more can be done have somewhere to turn.
Education & Experience
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Dr. Adil S. Ahmed, MD earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, located in the heart of the prestigious Texas Medical Center. During medical school, he completed the Space Medicine Track and was one of three students awarded the Certificate of Space Medicine. Research shaped his training from the beginning: a Center for Space Medicine grant funded his laboratory work on mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, a Globalization Travel Scholarship sent him to Stavanger University Hospital in Norway to study national joint replacement and fracture registries, and his investigation of microgravity and immune dysfunction earned honorable mention for the Aerospace Medical Association's Jeff Myers Young Investigator Award.
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He completed his orthopaedic surgery residency at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Ahmed was recognized for scoring in the top 1% of all orthopaedic surgery residents nationally on the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE), and was selected as the Administrative Chief Resident in his final year. He represented the program as its Resident Assembly Delegate to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) for three years, was nominated by his department to the American Orthopaedic Association's C. McCollister Evarts Resident Leadership Forum, and was awarded a research grant from the Foundation for Orthopaedic Trauma to study opioid prescribing patterns in orthopaedic trauma patients.
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Dr. Ahmed went on to complete dual fellowship training. He trained in Hand and Microsurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, during which he spent a month in Annecy, France with Dr. Laurent Lafosse and Dr. Thibault Lafosse studying advanced shoulder arthroscopy for shoulder instability and neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome — the endoscopic techniques that now define a central part of his practice. He then completed a second fellowship in Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at the Sydney Shoulder Research Institute in Sydney, Australia.
He joined the faculty in the Joseph Barnhart Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, where the graduating chief residents selected him as the department's Outstanding Faculty Award recipient in 2024, medical students recognized him with the Professional Educator Appreciation and Recognition Award in 2025, and his research productivity placed him in the top 3% of orthopaedic surgeons nationwide as ranked by Avant-Garde Health. In 2026, Dr. Ahmed received the Patient Connect recognition, honoring outstanding patient care.
Outside the Operating Room
Dr. Ahmed has trained in martial arts for over eighteen years across several disciplines — Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He knows what it means when a hand won't grip or a shoulder that won't rotate, because he has spent two decades depending on both.
He co-hosts the 2Docs1Mic podcast with cardiologist Dr. Humayun Naqvi, where they talk candidly about medicine, fitness, and fatherhood. Dr. Ahmed founded MedSchoolDeclassified.com, now among the most widely used resources for students pursuing medical school and residency. He also conducts research with NASA and Baylor's Center for Space Medicine on how the musculoskeletal system responds to microgravity — work that will matter when humans spend years, not months, off Earth.