In September 2015, Dr. Ruben P. Arafiles was requested to provide Orthopedic services at the Emergency Department of the newly opened Guam Regional Medical City. An independent contractor, he was the lone orthopedic surgeon of the hospital until December 2015. Other orthopedic surgeons have subsequently joined GRMC, but Dr. Arafiles remained an independent contractor until March this year when he accepted a full-time position.

Dr. Arafiles obtained his Medical Degree at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM), and his Orthopedic Residency at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), UP’s clinical/training arm, serving as Chief Resident on his last year.

He showed a talent for tenacity and innovation early on. He developed two surgical procedures
to his name: both have been published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), and were
described and illustrated in Campbell’ Operative Orthopedics, 12th edition, in 2013. The first
procedure, a fusion technique for an elbow destroyed by TB which he developed while just a
resident, was published in the JBIS, American edition in December 1981, and the second, a
reconstruction technique for neglected elbow dislocation which he developed for a patient from the province who was referred to him by a friend, was published in the JBJS, British edition in March 1987.

In 2004, Dr. Dror Paley, Training Program Director, informed Dr. Arafiles that of 51 applicants from all over the world, only 4have been chosen for the 2004 clinical fellowship in Limb Lengthening at the Rubin Institute of Advanced Orthopedics at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and that he was one of them. He completed this clinical fellowship in July of 2005. In 2013, he published the book “Advanced Orthopedics: Principles and Techniques”, describing surgeries performed by his mentors as he observed them during his fellowship at the Sinai Hospital.
Dr. Arafiles was one of the fellows of Dr. Ramon Gustilo at Metropolitan Medical Center (presently part of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota). Dr. Gustilo, a Filipino Orthopedic Surgeon
(who developed the classification of Open Fractures) sponsored Dr. Arafiles’ fellowship in Joint Replacement Surgery for one year and extended this fellowship for another year to include spine surgery for six months at the Twin Cities’ Scoliosis Center and 6months for trauma at the St. -Paul Ramsey Hospital (now Regions Hospital).

In 2014, Dr. Arafiles wrote and published his second book: Orthopedic Emergencies: Extremity
and Pelvic Trauma. He displayed his two books at a booth at the March 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) in Las Vegas.

• University of the Philippines College of Medicine – Doctor of Medicine
1966 – 1971 Manila, PH
• Metropolitan Medical Center, Joint Replacement Surgery – Fellow
July 1976 – June 1977 Minneapolis, MN
• Sinai Hospital, Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics – Clinical Fellow
July 1, 2004 – July 31, 2005 Baltimore, MD

• Visiting Orthopedic Surgeon, St. Luke’s Medical Center
• Visiting Orthopedic Surgeon, Makati Medical Center
• Orthopedic Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Guam Memorial Hospital Authority
• Orthopedic Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Guam Regional Medical City

• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, International Member
• Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA), International Member
• International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopedic Sports Medicine