Dr. Mark Lundeen moved to Fargo, North Dakota, from Dallas, Texas, in 1980 and established an independent practice in orthopedic surgery at the Professional Building in Fargo. In 1982, he founded the Red River Valley Sports Medicine Institute with the goal of providing high–quality athletic training services to rural North Dakota. This project has been extremely successful in accomplishing that goal and at one time was the single largest employer of athletic trainers in the United States and has become the model by which trainer programs regionally have been patterned.
In addition, Dr. Lundeen and his associates have spent countless hours covering high school and college sporting events for the Fargo Public School System, Fargo Shanley, West Fargo and three local colleges including Division I North Dakota State University in an ongoing effort to make sure that every athlete is afforded the luxury of high–quality medical care and the highest degree of safety possible during athletic competition.
In 1985, Dr. Lundeen was invited by Dr. Richard Steadman, Head Team Physician for the U.S. Ski Team, to become involved with USA Skiing and specifically, the World Cup Men’s Speed Team. His primary interest and participation has been with the men’s downhill racers and often traveled with the team on the World Cup Ski Circuit.
In 1992, he became associated with the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee and as part of that organization underwent an intensely competitive scrutiny of the quality of care and orthopedic knowledge in dealing with athletic injuries and problems. He spent two weeks in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and based on his performance there was invited to participate in the Olympic Training Festival in San Antonio, Texas, in 1993 and finally, based on evaluations by other orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, trainers and athletes, was honored to be selected as a Team Physician for the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. The honor of that selection was given to only two orthopedic surgeons that year.
Since completing the Olympic experience, he continued to be involved with the U.S. Ski Team and has been selected to be involved in the care of their athletes at the World Championships in Sestriere, Italy, and most recently in Vail, Colorado, in 1999.
In addition, The Orthopaedic Institute of Fargo has been an evolution and project that opened in 1993 marked with the belief that quality care for orthopedic patients should integrate not only orthopedic surgeons but physical therapists. Integral to the program is the Human Performance Laboratory where Dr. Lundeen continues to oversee a number of projects and is involved in research in human kinematics and function.
In the spring of 1999, an addition was opened, which includes an imaging center where complete radiology services are available to patients and athletes and the Institute of Special Surgery where outpatient operations are now being carried out. The model that has been created in Fargo continues to be a blueprint upon which other orthopedic practices can tailor their own needs.
In 2010, Dr. Lundeen became the enterprise chair for the department of orthopedics and sports medicine of Sanford Health. He continues to lead that group of physicians as they have launched a new residency in orthopedic surgery. He also serves on the board of directors for the Sanford Health Enterprise and on the finance sub-committee of that board.