Kenai Spine

Dr. Craig Humphreys grew up in Alaska, with his family entrenched in the local community in Anchorage. His dad, Richard Gene Humphreys, first arrived in Alaska in 1955 working on the early warning defense system for the United States under an air force contract with International Telephone & Telegraph. Craig’s mother, Carolyn Humphreys, started elementary school teaching in Anchorage in 1970 at Northern Lights, Tudor, Scenic Park and Denali elementary schools, and ultimately retiring from teaching in Alaska after 25 years in 1995. Dr. Humphreys attended Sand Lake/Gladys Wood Elementary School in Anchorage, and then Dimond/Mears Middle School and High School, graduating in 1981.

During the summers, to save money for college, Craig got exposed to all of Alaska, doing heavy labor working long hours on the North Slope with oil companies. The long workdays in the summer enabled him to save enough money to attend The University of Notre Dame where he earned his undergraduate degree in biology.

After graduating from Notre Dame, he attended Loyola School of Medicine where he received his medical degree. He then completed an Internship and Residency at Loyola School of Medicine while also volunteering time as an MD in other countries, including India, St. Lucia and Lithuania. Dr. Humphrey then completed a Fellowship in Orthopedic Spine Surgery at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. In 1996, he joined the Center for Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he has practiced for more than 15 years with a spine specialized practice attracting complex spine patients from across Tennessee and northern Georgia.

Through a long career as a spine surgeon, Dr. Humphreys was also involved in spinal research and has contributed to more than 70 publications. He has designed spinal implants and is currently working on research related to spinal implants that maintain motion in the spine and instrumentation related to minimally invasive spine surgery.

On a personal level, Dr. Humphreys is married with three teenage children, with the entire family loving the outdoors. He is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman. Over the years practicing medicine in Tennessee, Dr. Humphreys always wanted to return at some point to where he grew up in Alaska. His mother still resides in Anchorage and is now retired from teaching. Over the past 16 years in Tennessee, the Humphrey family has always maintained their family cabin on the Kenai River, visiting there several times a year to enjoy the beautiful summers in Alaska. On their visits the family enjoyed hiking and salmon fishing.

In 2010, after a very successful year as a spine surgeon in the South, the Humphrey family began exploring a relocation back to Alaska to enable Dr. Humphreys to finish his spine surgery career where he grew up in the Kenai Peninsula. At the same time, Ryan Smith, the CEO of Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska, noted that there was a community need for an experienced spine surgeon serving the Kenai Peninsula region. Those discussions served as the foundation of KenaiSpine, a spine practice focused on the treatment of back pain and neck pain, serving the residents of Soldotna, Kenai, Homer, Seward and other towns in the Kenai region.

Dr. Humphrey’s practice philosophy is to explore and exhaust all non-surgical options in advance of the patient considering spine surgery. This includes the use of spine-specialized therapy and injections that can relieve pain symptoms. KenaiSpine is a work in progress, as he hopes to develop spine-specialized therapy for the region to complement and augment his spine surgery expertise. He looks forward to being a part of the Alaska medical community, and welcomes other physicians to contact him directly.
Certifications:

* Diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

Associations:

* American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

* American Spinal Injury Association