About Dr. Little

Dr. Tom Little grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. He graduated with honors from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed his internship and residency at the Penn State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. 

After completing his medical training in 2001, Dr. Little joined Gettysburg Orthopaedics with partners Drs. Lon Woods, Joseph Tripi, and Ivan Miller and began his career in general orthopedics; in 2007 Gettysburg Orthopaedics joined Wellspan Health. In 2012 Dr. Little returned to Penn State University’s Hershey Medical Center to complete a fellowship in shoulder surgery. He continued working with Wellspan Orthopedics until 2016, when he joined Summit Orthopedics in Chambersburg. There he practiced primarily shoulder surgery until his retirement from surgical practice in 2021. Working for larger health systems, both within and outside Adams County, confirmed Dr. Little’s conviction that ultimately, he wanted to provide care in his local community outside the constraints of health insurance and the corporate health system.

In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Little served for ten years as an adjunct professor at Gettysburg College, where he taught courses in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, and pathophysiology of chronic disease.

A life-long recreational athlete, Dr. Little enjoys swimming, cycling, running, skiing, and hiking. Inevitably, he has sustained his fair share of sports-related injuries over the years, both chronic and traumatic. His personal experience with sports-related injuries, combined with his medical knowledge, has given him significant insight into effective, holistic treatments for these injuries.

Throughout his two decades of medical practice, Dr. Little has sought to avoid taking his patients to the operating room whenever possible, preferring to prescribe non-invasive treatment modalities and empower his patients with knowledge to support their healing—and turning to surgery only as a last resort. He has long envisioned creating a patient-oriented, non-surgical orthopedic practice in Gettysburg, where he can help patients correct the physical imbalances that inevitably accumulate over the course of their lives, reducing pain and deterioration without surgical intervention— though when surgery is necessary, he’s happy to make an appropriate referral.