Practitioner of the Year for Medical Specialty
by Marisa Plumb
One might say that Dr. Robert Radasch, winner of the 2006 Practitioner of the Year Award for Medical Specialty, has been on a specialized path in veterinary medicine since the age of 14, when he got his first job as a kennel boy. Before college or veterinary school, Dr. Radasch found this hands-on experience in animal care at a veterinary hospital in Mt. Prospect, Ill., an area west of Evanston, where he was born. Prospect Animal Hospital was to play a large role in Dr. Radasch’s career—from exposing him to lab technician and receptionist work from 1973-1980, to employing him as a veterinary assistant and preceptor from 1980-1984, to adding him to their roster of veterinarians from 1984-1985. Over so many years, Prospect Animal Hospital opened up doors for Dr. Radasch to fulfill his ongoing goal to practice veterinary medicine, and helped him hone his passion for orthopedic surgery, the specialty for which TVMA just recently recognized him.
The Evolution of an Interest
Dr. Radasch’s interest in surgery originated from his intuition and the hobbies of his youth. “The way I look at medicine, is a lot of times, in surgery, there’s a lot of hand-eye coordination, and the ability to think three-dimensionally.” He has found that many surgeons he knows were always interested in fixing things, and putting things together with their hands. Dr. Radasch had a childhood passion for woodworking and crafts, and this hobby has followed him into his adulthood.
Perhaps for this reason, Dr. Radasch said that during high school, he was very interested in watching Dr. Charles Esser, at the veterinary hospital in Mt. Prospect, perform spays and neuters and make repairs to wounds that dogs had. This was the beginning of his exposure to the work and methodologies of experienced practitioners, which, taken in combination, led Dr. Radasch to finalize his decision to pursue veterinary school.
Dr. Radasch’s observational and hands-on experience was also shaped by his affiliation with Dr. Claude Gendreau, then the department head of Veterinary Orthopedics at the University of Illinois. Dr. Gendreau would visit the Chicago area about once a month to perform surgeries for Chicago-area veterinarians during the time that Dr. Radasch was in high school and working at the Mt. Prospect hospital. “And since I was the low guy on the totem pole in terms of salary,” Dr. Radasch said, he was usually assigned to “hold legs” during Dr. Gendreau’s procedures.
As his senior year of high school ended, he kept in touch with Dr. Gendreau, and through this connection, the mentorship grew into more extensive experiences and opportunities for Dr. Radasch, including an internship during his first year out of veterinary school. In addition to his regular job, he would visit Dr. Gendreau in the afternoons and evenings and help him conduct late-night surgeries. As a result, Dr. Gendreau helped Dr. Radasch get into a small animal surgical residency at Iowa State University starting in 1984. Dr. Radasch said, “Dr. Gendreau was instrumental not only in a technical and professional sense, but in building my interest in veterinary surgery.”
The Origins of a Surgical Center
The story of how Dr. Radasch came to practice surgery in Dallas, Texas is interwoven with the story of his specialization in orthopedics. Dr. Bob Barsted, one of Dr. Radasch’s fellow residents at Iowa State University, ended up luring Dr. Radasch to join him in a practice in the Lone Star state. Dr. Radasch said that because they had already worked together for almost a year, they knew that their Midwest, conservative backgrounds gave them some common ground, and that they had a productive professional relationship.
After the residency in 1985, Dr. Radasch was about to go to Michigan State University, while Dr. Barsted went to Dallas to start a practice. A turn of events occurred, however, when Dr. Barsted asked Dr. Radasch to come down to Dallas to fill in for him over a vacation. Dr. Radasch, picturing a landscape of “tumbleweeds, with everyone riding on horses”, agreed to travel south, but actually found that Dallas and its surrounding areas were similar to cities and suburbs in the north.
“I worked for the three weeks that he was on vacation, and I really enjoyed it. He then asked me if I’d like to move down, and after a year or so, buy into the practice,” Dr. Radasch said.
In light of the established, good working dynamic with Dr. Barsted, Dr. Radasch again agreed, and few years later, in 1988, he bought into the practice. That practice is now the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center, a 7-partner referral practice, with 4 associates and one of the nation’s leading mentor-based, private internship programs.
Contributing to a Field
Veterinary knowledge—and the technologies available to enact veterinary knowledge—has of course evolved greatly in the time that Dr. Radasch has been involved in medicine, especially in the field of orthopedics, and he embraces this fact. “I’ve always been an individual that likes a challenge ahead of me. Once I learn to do something, it’s not that it’s not important, but I’m always looking for something that’s a little beyond reach.” That’s one of the reasons Dr. Radasch became involved in bone deformities. Because it was a fairly untouched surgical field for animals up until 7 or 10 years ago, Dr. Radasch felt more could be done for them.
Fortunately, Dr. Radasch became part of a small group of veterinarians that worked with Dr. Bob Welch to adapt orthopedic techniques used on humans for use on animals. Dr. Welch was the director of the Scottish Rights Hospital for Children in Dallas–one of the best Children’s Hospitals for orthopedics in the country–and was willing to work towards veterinary adoption of certain surgical procedures. One example of the techniques that the group learned to apply to animals was ring fixers. This group of 4 or 5 veterinarians worked with Dr. Welch in formal short courses on “the basics of instrumentation, and how they were using them for children, and then we went out and started applying them to clinical cases.”
“If there’s a six-month old that has bone deformities,” Dr. Radasch said, “That if left alone is going to have crippling arthritis, we now have the ability, should the client wish to go forward with it, to get the legs straight, not so much for the cosmetics, but to make sure the dog doesn’t end up with a lot of arthritic problems–that’s the real issue.”
Dr. Radasch’s adaptation and improvement of bone deformity procedures is just one example of the leading role and collaborative attitude that Dr. Radasch has offered veterinary medicine. He said he sees his primary responsibility on a daily basis as “working for vets in the surrounding area, because they are our primary client. We always honor their prognosis and treat each case specifically.” Dr. Radasch also emphasized that his role and his challenge as a veterinarian in a referral clinic is to present clients with the entire range of their options, “from doing nothing, to doing everything.”
He also said that the “degree to which I have been involved in continuing education at the local level, and sometimes at the national and international level,” is another major way he has given back to the field.
As a practitioner that sees the value of condensing learned skills for maximum utilization and dissemination to other practitioners, Dr. Radasch labored over the decision to leave the university, as he enjoys merging his veterinary knowledge with his passion for lecturing. Dr. Radasch is committed to education and mentorship in the profession. If he is teaching or giving a presentation he said, “I want to feel that other veterinarians are taking certain techniques away with them, to improve the services of their own veterinary clinics.” Lecture topics he has presented included a lot of soft tissue topics early on in his career, and then evolved to fractures, ACL reconstructive techniques, and of course, bone deformities.
An Early Start and Continuing Dedication
Dr. Radasch first proclaimed an interest in joining the veterinary profession in the 1st grade. “And my parents didn’t know why,” Radasch said, “Because at that time we didn’t have dogs.” Now, his only brother is also a veterinarian, practicing in the far north suburbs of Chicago, and his parents are long-time animal lovers. In keeping with his focus on his career and his referral practice, Dr. Radasch met his wife at the Dallas clinic, where she was a client. They have two children, ages 5 and 7, and they have been hinting at an interest in the “horsey doctor” profession.
