TRIA began as a partnership between a private sports medicine practice (The Orthopaedic Center), a multi-specialty healthcare provider (Park Nicollet Health Services) and an academic center (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Minnesota Physicians). Orthopaedic surgeons from each of these three entities realized the need to bring all elements of orthopaedics together to improve patient care and treatment outcomes.

These physicians recognized a breakdown in the way that patients, care providers, insurance companies, and hospitals work together. They wanted to reorganize their medical practices to empower patients to be involved in their care, and to re-establish the connection between patients and their physicians.