Forty Under 40: George “BJ” Deimel

Admiration for his family physician led George “BJ” Deimel to develop an interest in medicine.

“[Dr. Larry Brashears] worked tirelessly for his patients and community, and I always respected that quality about him,” he said.

Deimel, a Malvern native, completed his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in 2013. He chose the specialty because he always enjoyed anatomy and how the body functions. Also, his father had a spinal cord injury, and Deimel saw how specialists in the field assist patients with functional limitations.

In 2014, he completed a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Utah and provided on-site care for the hundreds of athletes on the U.S. Olympic team in Sochi, Russia.

After the fellowship, Deimel became medical director for the Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit at Northwest Medical Center — Springdale. Over the past two years, he’s worked to double admission by raising awareness of the rehabilitation unit and rebranding. In May, a $250,000 renovation project was completed on the unit, and he recently started work to have it become a certified stroke rehabilitation center and CARF accredited by the end of 2018.

In January 2016, he started at Ozark Orthopaedics in Bentonville. He spends about 80% of his time seeing patients in an outpatient setting there.

He’s written three textbook chapters, published between 15 and 20 articles on musculoskeletal conditions and sports injuries and spoken more than 40 times on musculoskeletal ultrasound.

Deimel graduated from the University of Arkansas and received a medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

In his free time, he does CrossFit.