Transcription:
University of Missouri Orthopaedic Expert Cares for Athletes in Basketball, Track, Cross Country and Golf

Prakash Chandran (host): Welcome to the MU Healthcare Podcast. Today we're getting to know Dr. Richard Ma. Dr. Ma, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. Richard Ma: Well, I really appreciate having the opportunity to kind of chat with you.

Prakash Chandran (host): Awesome. Well, first off, it says that you specialize in orthopedic surgery. I'd love to learn a little bit about what made you choose medicine and this specialty in the first place.

Dr. Richard Ma: Well, I originally came into medicine because my brother lived with a chronic illness and really just seeing him go through that really attracting me to come to medicine. It also emerged, my interest in science. It was my strength as well as mathematics. I was never gonna be a lawyer or a writer. That was not my strength. but it was seeing him deal with a chronic illness and my strength in science that brought me into medicine.

But orthopedic surgery I became interested because of just being a former athlete myself and having dealt in with injuries. That's initially kind of formed an initial spark in terms of me looking to orthopedic medicine. And then I love working with my hands. And so for anybody that knows orthopedic surgery you definitely get to work with your hands and you get to work with tools. And so those things spoke to me in terms of as a life passion. And so that's how I got into this field.

Prakash Chandran (host): That's awesome. Now, you said you played some sports growing up. What did you play?

Dr. Richard Ma: Mostly a soccer athlete but with friends. I also played so I did play a year of high school football. I don't know if you can really count it. I was a kicker. So kickers always kind of off on the size. but it was a football team. I was on the football team. I had a helmet, had pads and everything. So that I really enjoy that year. And I love playing, just pick up basketball with my friends. And so I was surrounded by, athletics, when I grew up so athletics, sports, and has a special place in my heart for sure.

Prakash Chandran (host): Okay. And I guess this is kind of related, and you touched on this, but like the interest in sports medicine from being, an orthopedic surgeon. Can you talk a little bit about how that happened for you in the first place?

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, I think I got exposed to sports medicine when I was thinking about orthopedic surgery, as a field. And for some of the listeners you may not realize, on sports medicine the surgeries that we do are minimally evasive and so it's not necessarily, directly touching some of the things that we are gonna fix for an athlete. It's mostly arthroscopic surgery, which was done through, small holes and I found that very challenging.

And another passion of mine when I was younger was video games, and I felt like that surgery and that field of surgery in sports medicine was technically very challenging. But you also had a chance to kind of work with athletes who are very motivated to get better. And so when you put, good surgeries with motivated athletes, you a lot of times get very good outcomes, and that was very gratifying. So that's how I gravitated towards sports medicine specifically as a field in orthopedic surgery.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah, you kind of made that video game analogy. And I think a lot of us have heard of the term minimally invasive before, but I'd love for you to just talk a little, bit more about it. I know that something that you do regularly is kind of that key hole, I guess type of surgery. And then there's actually quite a bit of work that you do through the keyhole. Talk a little bit at a high level about why minimally invasive is important for sports medicine and then what you're doing with the type of keyhole surgery that you had spoken about before.

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, I think the minimally invasive part in terms of how important that is it's probably very easy to understand. I think if you can get the amount of work done without causing bigger incisions, bigger scars, it's probably easier to recover. And so, being able to take a very complex surgery but being able to do it with less surgical dissection allows us to get an athlete to recover faster make their pain less and ultimately shorten probably the timeline that you would take for them from, surgery to hopefully recovering and playing on the field.

And so that's why scopic surgery instead. such, Improvement in advancement in terms of how we treat a lot of these athletic muscle skeletal injuries. , the surgery itself is done through just. , strategically place holes to allow us to address this very specific injured part, whether it be the knee, the should, the ankle or the hip. And so, the field as a whole is very interesting and still challenges in me every day because people are finding newer ways to take care of things that we didn't think we can do through auto scopic, and minimally invasive surgery.

So it continuously evolve. It enforces me as a surgeon even though I'm in practice to continue to learn and also better myself. And I find that very gratifying as a career.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah, that's awesome. I've often heard that, sports medicine and the work that's being done there really is at the forefront and a lot of the advances that we see in medicine, in biologic therapy, things of that nature because you're caring for athletes and they need to get better quickly, and then, they have to be kind of at a certain performance level very quickly. Is that something that really, I guess, motivates you and drives you because you're constantly at the forefront of things?

Dr. Richard Ma: Absolutely. I think, you hit on specific topic, which is biologics. I think from a surgical standpoint, our ability to fix things, in terms of instrumentation and things that we use has been refined to a level that is very good. The next frontier is to figure out how to harness an athlete's body to help us heal, things faster. And so orthopedic sports medicine is really at the frontier of that because we want to deliver those treatments in a minimally invasive way, whether it be through injections or, other, millimeter invasive ways to kind of get to that area and deliver those factors those medicine that will help an athlete heal faster.

And so it's a natural marriage of surgery in terms of principle and also, biology. and then you have the right mix of population, which are individuals that need to heal faster. And so that's why you've seen a lot of this come through sports medicine.

Prakash Chandran (host): That's so cool. Well, I wanna talk a little bit more about you and the patients that you serve. I see that you're the team physician for the track and field team of the University of Missouri. Talk a little bit about that experience and also the patients that you care for in addition to them.

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, so I, am the team physician for our Mizzou track and field. And also our cross-country team and also oversee the entire Mizzou basketball program. So I take care of both the men and women basketball team. And so that's a large population of athletics for those of you guys are familiar with university athletic programs. But there are fun group to work with. They're all very highly motivated. they love their. and so when they have an injury they are very goal oriented individuals that are trying to figure out how do I get better so I could get back to doing the things that made me special and the things that I love, which usually involve their sport.

With track and field and cross country, I'm pretty much taking care of them year round because it happens year round. And track and field CrossCountry is an interesting, sport because within it you have running athletes, but then you also have field events, which are a run athletes. And then I just love basketball just in general. And so taking care of the women and the men's has been really gratifying.

Prakash Chandran (host): And they get the added benefit, of your experience. One of the things that I was reading is that you also have worked with teams like the New York Knicks and the Giants. Is that true?

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, I've worked with, the New York Knicks, during my two year sports fellowship, program at, hospital for Special Surgery. And also had the privilege of taking care of St. John's university and being involved in their athletic program. So that was very helpful once I finished my training and having those experiences and then being able to bring those experiences in mid Missouri to serve as athletes and also the University of Missouri.

But even though I take care of like Mizzou athletics, honestly, that's not the biggest part of my job. actually take care of community athletes, probably more often than I take care of Mizzou athletics. And so it's been a privilege to also, serve in Missouri and also high school and middle school athletes alike. So, because I mix up with the bulk of my job and it's very gratifying to work with them as well.

Prakash Chandran (host): Well, that's one of the things that I was gonna mention next is you bring all of this elite learning, right? And this work with all of these athletes to the broader community. I'm a weekend warrior, I play pickup basketball and being just over 40. I'm not, in the same shape as I used to be. I definitely hurt myself and injure myself a lot. And just knowing that there's someone like yourself who brings this kind of, like, you work with these elite athletes and you bring that same mindset and discipline to caring for patients like all of us, is amazing. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that, about how you take your experience working with these athletes and bring it to the broader community.

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, I think I learn a lot through our Mizzou athletes because they have a tremendous amount of resources. and then seeing them recover from a particular injury. You learn a lot about what the human body may be able to achieve. If you could create a similar situation for another athlete that might not be a collegiate. And so, for my patients that are not part of Mizzou Athletics, I try to figure out what resources do you have in your community that I could recreate that situation and then hopefully be able to even though they're not in the collegiate athletic program, create a team including the surgeon the therapist.

A lot of these kids also have athletic trainers to recreate that same environment so that we could get the same. And so, that's what I've learned in being involved in universal athletics is seeing all these different individuals and what they can potentially bring to bear for an injured athlete to get them back on the field, is helped me learn how to utilize those resources and then identify those resources for kids that are not from the University of Missouri. And or even weaken warriors like you in your community so that I can hopefully get the same outcome for you, even though you're not part of the University of Missouri athletic program.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah. But even outside of sports, I know you work with like farmers and people that are just suffering from I guess more generalized orthopedic injuries. And you can still bring that level of discipline and approach to them as well, right?

Dr. Richard Ma: Absolutely, and I will tell you taking care of individuals like the construction workers, the farmers they're challenging, because, even though they're not in the sport program, their demands on their bodies are very similar to an athlete. And time away for them, it's not just time away from sports. It's time away from making a living. And so they're on a similar timeline. and so, the same skills that I have in terms of counseling them, how to draw up a rehabilitation plan, I apply to them as well, because I think, they also have the same, motivation and the desire to get better.

And so I think you're right, absolutely. Besides athletic programs and athletes even individuals that are working they have similar motivations, similar desires. And so I think that's what's between athletes that being able to be helpful for me to, in order to utilize some of those skills to treat a broad spectrum of the population that I serve at Mid Missouri.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah. That's amazing. I'd love to learn a little bit more about your personal life. Tell us about your family and kind of what you do when you're not helping others in the community.

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah, well, I'm a transplant too. I'm in Missouri, so I'm originally not from the mid-Missouri area, but when I came here and I was married my wife, who we had gotten engaged when I went off to New York City for my, finished my training. So when I came here, I was married and we didn't have any kids. And then now, fast forward nine years later, now I have two kids and we actually have roots in Missouri. And so when I'm not working meaning I'm not, on, at the hospital taking care of people I like to spend a lot of my time with my family and my two young kids. They keep me active plenty.

And so my son just started soccer. So, it's kind of bought some flashbacks for me for my youth soccer days. And, my wife and I, we are avid sports fans. So she loves football. I also love football. She has to be a Dallas Cowboy fan. I'm a Red Skins fan or a Washington Commanders fan now. So there's definitely plenty of heated libraries in my home. And she's managed to co-op both of my kids to be cowboy fans. So I'm kind of like the lone watching the Commanders fan in the family. So my spare time, I also like to watch sports. So that's my family and my kids who makes up the bulk of my time away from work.

Prakash Chandran (host): Love it. Well, just as we start to close, I'd love to ask you just kind of a quick fire round some questions that you can answer. Would that be okay?

Dr. Richard Ma: Sure. Absolutely. Love to do it.

Prakash Chandran (host): Okay. Awesome. So, tell me about your first job?

Dr. Richard Ma: Well, my first job was at Hardee's. So I worked at the fast food restaurant working under my mother, who was the manager. So I was a cashier being paid $4 and 90 cents an hour, and eating as much burgers as I want. So that was great.

Prakash Chandran (host): There you go. A hero that inspires you?

Dr. Richard Ma: My parents, absolutely, for taking the chance to bring us to this country and giving me this opportunity. So they're my heroes every. my dad worked really hard. I saw it every day and that's instilled a lot of my work ethic in me.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah. if you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go first?

Dr. Richard Ma: I would go back to Barcelona, Spain. A lot of fond memories there both in medical school and also with my wife. So, I love the culture. I love the vibe being up against the Mediterranean. So, I would go back,

Prakash Chandran (host): Nice. And if you were stuck on a plane for 10 hours and you could only pick one movie, what would that be?

Dr. Richard Ma: Oh man, that's really hard. I really like the Lord of the Ring trilogy that probably covered that 10 hours.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah, it would maybe more.

Dr. Richard Ma: Absolutely. and, I just, love the fantasy and, just, the world that, Jar Token was able to, create. So, I probably would do that.

Prakash Chandran (host): Awesome. And finally, if you weren't practicing medicine, what would you be doing?

Dr. Richard Ma: I probably would be, an entrepreneur maybe in the restaurant business. How we came to this country was my dad was a chef. He cooked for a living and we ended up in Virginia partly because he was chasing his dream, his American dream. We were opened to a restaurant in Virginia, so I got, I grew up around the restaurant business. I was a waiter. Washed dishes. and, I would love to do that one day to own my own restaurant was something of that nature. So if I wasn't doing this, I'll probably find a way to be an entrepreneur and try to see if I can get back to doing that very thing that was surrounded by when I was growing up.

Prakash Chandran (host): That's awesome. Dr. Ma, I've really appreciated your time today. What a fascinating conversation. Thanks for giving us a chance to get to know you.

Dr. Richard Ma: Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you for taking the time to chat with me This morning.

Prakash Chandran (host): Yeah. And thank you all for joining us today. For more information, you can visit muhealth.org/team docs, or you can call 573-882-BONE. That is 573-882-BONE. My name's Prakash Chandran and thanks again for tuning in. Be well.