Lesley Anderson, M.D.

Dr. Lesley Anderson has been a specialist in complex knee and shoulder problems since
1984. She was born and raised in Pennsylvania where she actively participated in sports throughout college, specifically lacrosse and field hockey. She developed her interest in treating injuries of the knee and shoulder through her own personal surgeries as a teenager, when orthopedic surgery was primitive compared with current techniques.

She received her BS at Penn State and completed her MD at Hershey Medical School at Penn State in 1976. At UCLA, Dr. Anderson was their first female orthopedic resident. She completed a fellowship in Knee Surgery and Sports medicine at the Blazina Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles. Since moving to San Francisco in 1985, Dr. Anderson has specialized in treating only knee and shoulder problems. She has been listed in Castle-Connelly’s “America’s Top Doctors” yearly from 2000-present. Doctors in this list are nominated and selected by their orthopedic peers.

Although she stopped performing surgery in 2024, Dr. Anderson has focused her practice on providing biologics and advocating for their realistic use. More importantly, patients do not get the time or information they need in many orthopedic o]ices to navigate their treatment options. She has focused her entire career on providing compassionate education and helping patients be their own informed advocates.

Dr. Anderson is dedicated in providing the highest quality and scope of care to her patients. She individualizes each patient’s care with the focus on finding the best solution, be it nonsurgical or surgical for each person’s orthopedic problem. She enjoys developing longterm relationships with her patients and strives to provide a comfortable environment for patients to receive help with their orthopedic problems.

She has been at the forefront in developing biologic resurfacing techniques of the knee for the past 40 years as an alternative to knee replacement. This has included meniscus transplantation, fresh allografts for treating large cartilage defects of the knee, osteochondral autografts for smaller cartilage defects to autologous cartilage implantation (MACI) for cloning the patients’ own cartilage cells for treating cartilage defects. She volunteered for the Olympic Games in LA in 1984.

Dr. Anderson is certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and Arthroscopy Association of North America. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at UCSF She served as the President of the California Orthopedic Association from 2020-2021 and continues to be an active advocate for the private practice of medicine.

Please click here for her complete Curriculum Vitae.

Staff Info

We work both in office and remotely, but are available by text, email or phone. Contact us by emailing staff@drlanderson.com; text to 415-419-4731 or call the same number. Please allow 24 hours for a response.

Pilar has been Dr. Anderson’s Medical Assistant for the past 19 years. pilar@drlanderson.com.

Hospital Affiliation

California Pacific Medical Center