Before we plan the operation,
what do you need your shoulder to do?
A guided patient system with five named phases, named contacts at every step, and written plans you can read at home. The shoulder you need back is the one that serves your life.
Hear it directly.
Dr Coory explains his approach to shoulder and upper limb conditions — and what to expect from the Guided Patient System.
Shoulder surgery is not a sub-interest. It is the practice.
A subspecialty shoulder practice on the Sunshine Coast, operating inside a guided patient system.
The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, and the one most likely to mislead both patient and surgeon when it goes wrong. Dr Coory has built his practice around the careful management of shoulder problems - the rotator cuff that won't sleep at night, the recurrent dislocator in their early twenties, the arthritic shoulder that has finally lost its lift.
He performs the full contemporary range of shoulder surgery: arthroscopic (keyhole) cuff and labral repair, anatomic and reverse total shoulder replacement, and complex revision arthroplasty - with CT-based pre-operative planning across the spectrum, and Mako haptic-guided robotic burring for selected reverse cases.
He also operates routinely on the elbow (cubital tunnel release for ulnar nerve compression) and on the wrist and hand (endoscopic carpal tunnel release, and open reduction internal fixation, or ORIF, of distal radius fractures).
The clinical work is held inside a coordinated patient pathway: five named phases, named contacts at each step, written plans before every milestone. You will know where you are.
Free patient self-assessment.
A validated 12-question self-assessment of how your shoulder is affecting daily life. Useful baseline before a consultation - and worth retaking after physiotherapy, injection or surgery to see if it has helped. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Score bands
Significant daily limitation. Night pain usually present. Difficulty with basic tasks such as dressing, reaching, and carrying. A consultation with a shoulder specialist is strongly recommended.
Moderate impact on daily life. Overhead activities and sleeping are often affected. A clinical assessment would clarify options - physiotherapy, injection, or surgical review.
Mild-to-moderate symptoms. Some activities affected but most day-to-day function preserved. Physiotherapy and activity modification are usually the right first step.
Good shoulder function with minimal limitation. A useful benchmark to return to after treatment - retaking the score shows whether physiotherapy, injection or surgery has made a measurable difference.
Five named phases. Named contacts. Written plans.
Most patients leave their first orthopaedic consultation with more questions than they arrived with. The GPS was built to fix that. You will always know where you are.
Orientation
From the moment your referral arrives, your care coordinator has a named role. You will be contacted within one business day - not an automated response, a person who has read what you sent.
Preparation
Before you arrive in clinic, the imaging is in hand, the plan is sketched, and the appointment is built around what you need the shoulder to do. The first question is not about the MRI - it is about your life.
Intervention
If surgery is the right answer, Dr Coory performs it personally. The CT plan, the implant choice, the soft-tissue balance - the surgical plan that serves a surfer is not identical to the one that serves a plasterer, even when the anatomy looks the same.
Recovery
Rehabilitation is the operation that lasts. Your treating physiotherapist receives a procedure-specific written protocol on the day of surgery. Reviews are at protocol-defined milestones: 1 week, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months.
Lifestyle Design
The measure of recovery is not the post-op X-ray. It is the Monday morning. What can you do now that you could not do before? That is the standard. Phase 5 is the philosophy that governs everything before it.
Mako robotic-assisted reverse shoulder replacement.
Dr Coory was the first surgeon on the Sunshine Coast to perform Mako robotic-assisted total shoulder replacement: CT-based, patient-specific planning paired with haptic-guided glenoid burring. The Mako shoulder application is currently approved for reverse total shoulder replacement only.
Guides patients come back to.
Practical answers to the questions you are actually asking — recovery timelines, cost breakdowns, surgical decision frameworks.
Rotator Cuff Surgery Recovery Timeline
From day one through twelve months — sling duration, physio milestones, return to driving, work and sport.
Read the timeline Choosing a surgeonHow to Choose a Shoulder Surgeon
What credentials to check, which questions to ask, and why subspecialty training matters more than advertising.
Read the guide Decision frameworkDo I Need Shoulder Surgery?
Which conditions are managed conservatively, when surgery becomes necessary, and what a specialist opinion involves.
Read the guide