Transcription:
Orthopaedic Expert and Former Baseball Player Uses His Knowledge of the Game to Help Mizzou Athletes

Prakash: Hello, we're here to meet the official team physicians for Mizzou Athletics. My name is Prash Chandran, and today we're getting to know Dr. Steven DeFroda, a fellowship trained sports medicine and trauma surgeon. Dr. DeFroda thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time. I wanted to get started by asking what exactly made you choose to go into medicine specifically sports medicine?.

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, thanks for having me. I mean, first and foremost, obviously I got into medicine probably for the same reasons as most, to help people. Growing up medicine was of the farthest thing from really on my radar. I mean, I knew I liked math and science and. working with people, but medicine was, kind of out there for me. I had my own little health issue where I needed to undergo a surgical procedure in high school. And I had that instant fear of, I might never get to play sports again. I may never get to do the things that I enjoy doing again.

And the team that helped take care of me was just fantastic and kind of walking me through the process and I got a little bit intellectually curious about it and then decided, Hey, you know what? I could do this and I could be that person for someone. And that was what kind of drove me to medicine specifically. And then as far as sports medicine goes, I grew up in and around sports and knew a lot about that and just naturally gravitated towards that culture and helping that patient population.

Prakash: Now you're specifically, an orthopedic surgeon. What made you go into orthopedic surgery?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, so orthopedics is really the study of how the body moves and putting together the muscles, joints, bones, ligaments, tendons, of the body that kind of, you know, powers our daily movements and physical activities. And I actually went to college for engineering and engineering translated really well to orthopedic surgery and a lot of the principles and components were the same. There's actually a lot of crossover in my coursework that really drew me to that field just naturally. And as I tried out other fields. Learn more about medicine. I always came back to orthopedics as just kind of being home for me.

Prakash: Yeah. That's awesome. And obviously there's that strong correlation between, everything you're doing in orthopedics and kind of advancing sports medicine forward. You kind of touched on this already in doing some research on you. I saw that when you were 15 years old you suffered this injury and you were wondering for to yourself, am I ever going to, play sports again? Can you just share with the audience a little bit about what you were doing that caused the injury and then the team that helped you?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, so my, injury was probably a little bit different than most, where most people break a bone or tear an ACL. I actually got a really bad eye infection and we still don't really know what caused it. You know, I was a contact wearer growing up and we think that could have. Been it, what we thought was a bad case of pink eye ended up being, an ulcer on my cornea on the surface of my eye, and I ended up actually needing a transplant cornea to treat that, which, when you're a 15 year old kid was obviously a very scary thing to go through. So there were a lot of tests and Physician visits. I was in the hospital for a period of time and temporarily lost vision in that eye and, got that back obviously with the surgery.

So it was definitely a very scary time. And I was very fortunate to work with a great physician and a great team in Delaware, which is the state that I'm from. And they just did a great job explaining everything to myself and my family and, took great care of us. And, I ended up 2020 vision, got back to sports, doing all the things that I loved doing. But it was obviously a long process. And through that I learned about medicine and I'm not really like a, believer in fate so to speak, but it was one of those things where, this happened to me maybe for a reason and might as well pursue medicine.

I mean, it just seemed like a good fit. It checked all the boxes and the things that I was, interested in and kind of married my love of interacting with people, with my love of medicine and math and science and that area as well.

Prakash: I mean, that totally makes sense to me. In some ways probably inspired you, right? Like it inspired you by the team that was taking care of you, and it probably made an impact that you could provide the same care for others. When you got back to sports, I know you also formally played baseball and you're a team physician for Mizzou Athletics. Can you share a little bit about what you do for Mizzou Athletics and also how your former sports history plays into the care that you provide that team?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm the head team physician for our baseball athletes and for our women's volleyball team here. I think first and foremost playing sports, growing up, I was always on some type of team sport, but baseball was my pri primary sport. I think for me, having that past history of being on a team, being in team sports, I kind of know a little bit of how to relate to these guys. I was telling one of the fellows the other day, I mean, being in the dugout is the same as a physician, as it was as a player. It's the same personalities, it's the same lingo and language. And I'm able to relate to these guys a little bit, especially as someone who was there before and went through my own injuries, on that side of things.

And, knowledge of kind of the overhead athlete and those injuries extends a little bit into volleyball where they see a lot of the similar injuries that we see in our baseball athletes. And once again, just knowing how to interact with the coach, with the trainer, with the players, knowing what their goals are, trying to figure out how to time treatments with, are we in season? Are we outta season? Do we have a game coming up? Is it the postseason? And titrate our care a little bit based on that. And really hear and understand the athlete's needs. I think being a former athlete myself, I can relate to that a little bit and help provide them the best care.

Prakash: Totally. And I imagine that there's a piece of that, that goes into preventative care, right? Like because you're a former player and you know that these athletes are trying to basically perform at the best of their ability and evolving their skills, you can probably give them frameworks or things to do to actually prevent injury in the future. Is that correct?

Dr. DeFroda: You a hundred percent hit the nail on the head. I mean, especially in baseball and other sports in general. I mean, overuse injuries are so prevalent and prevention is a main thing that we do. And actually one of the big things that we're working on here at Mizzou . We actually have this pretty cool video analysis technology that we're using on our baseball athletes specifically, and we're hoping to extend it to the other areas where we actually film them doing a multitude tests, squats, jumps, lunges and things like that.

And we can measure the rotation, we can measure their flexibility and then correlate that back to both on field performance as well as physical examination of their flexibility and kind of help correlate that with their injury A little bit to exactly what you said, hopefully prevent that arm injury, prevent that shoulder. Keep these guys healthy and keep them performing at a top level and keep them from having to see me in my office and just be able to see me in a social atmosphere at the game. And that's really, like I said, I may not, target of our research and I'm collaborating with our therapists and the trainers and that's been a really cool work that we're doing.

Prakash: That is so incredibly cool to hear. Another piece that I wanted to mention is, you actually are part of a larger team of team physicians that helps Mizzou athletics. Tell me a little bit about what that's like working with this multidisciplinary team that obviously has a focus in sports medicine, but tell us how you all work together?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah. I mean that's another great thing about medicine and orthopedics and sports medicine in general is the team. And that's what drew me to Mizzou is we have such a strong team here. We have a team of other operative orthopedic surgeons like myself. We have a team of non-operative sports medicine trained family practice physicians who are incredibly helpful and actually each team has one of the family med docs. And one of the surgeons together so that we can corner the market on, general wellness pulmonary problems, things of that nature. Or if there's a surgical problem, then they can see me. And it's just great being able to have that interplay because we can interact with one another and educate one another.

And then even to take it a step further on the surgical side, we all have our little areas of interest within orthopedics where we specialize in, I do primarily hip, knee, and shoulder, but my kind of niche specific area of interest is probably the hip and kind of the thrower shoulder. So if an athlete has one of those problems, they can be directed, to myself, if a patient has a complex knee injury, I can direct them to one of my partners who really specializes, does a lot of research in that area. So we can really The best of each other and strengthen our own team by interacting in such a collaborative fashion. And that's such a great thing about our institution here and our sports medicine team here.

Prakash: I love that, Of athletics, you obviously take care of a lot of people that might be construction workers or farmers, and I'd love for you to talk a little bit about how you bring that professional approach, helping athletes to the broader community and what they're going through?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, I mean for me, all of my patients are relatively active and they all wanna get back to some level of activity, whether it's, being alignment and hanging wire from the electrical company or whether it's doing weekend marathons or playing pickup football, at the collegiate level, everyone has their own, sport that they play, whether it's an organized sport or not an activity level they're trying to get back to. And that's really a goal of a lot of our injuries, they come to me with a problem that's keeping them from doing the thing that they enjoy doing. , and that's why they're in my office.

I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not taking care of, brain cancer. these aren't life-threatening problems, but they're problems that threaten people's quality of life. And for me, my goal is to communicate to the patient, okay, how do we come up with a comprehensive approach to get you back to doing what you love doing? Is it surgery? Is it an injection? Is it therapy? Is it a combination of all three of these? So a team dynamic between myself and the patient as well to say, okay, how do we get you to an acceptable level of activity for you and what's the best kind of pathway to that? And I think most of the patients seem to appreciate that. And like I said, I mean that's the big reason they see us orthopedic surgeons, they're not able to function at a level that they'd like.

Prakash: Yeah, and I think the added. Of the focus on sports medicine means that, you really try to optimize for getting them back to what they're doing quickly, right? Because that is obviously adopted from sports, but even a construction worker that needs to get back to the way they were for paying the bills, for example, they can rest assured the fact that you have all of the proper techniques to basically make sure that there's a constructive plan to get them back at it.

Dr. DeFroda: Absolutely. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, it's just the same as the athlete who has to be ready for, April 1st start of the season, et cetera. A lot of our patients are very, blue collar workers that they need to work to get a paycheck, and if they're debilitated or they're in pain and they can't do that, it's gonna really compromise, their social situation as well. So how do we work with them, work with the therapist and get them what they need in the quickest and best way possible.

Prakash: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Dr. DeFroda, I'd love to spend a little bit, more time just getting to know you as an individual outside of practicing medicine. Tell us a little bit about your family life and what you do in your free time.

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah. So for me, I'm married. My wife is actually also a physician. She's a urologist and she also practices here at mu. So that's a pretty cool dynamic that we have. Just that kind of shared love of medicine and helping people. And then we have two young boys ages three and two, who, keep us pretty busy. You know, prior to having young children, we really like traveling and going to national parks and hiking and those things. And we do still keep up with some of those things, especially now that the boys are getting a little bit older, getting back into traveling and just trying to stay active.

I take pride in kind of personal fitness and bicycling and things of that nature and fits my job description. Well, luckily I like to attend sporting events, whether professional or collegiate. Mizzou has that to offer as well, where on a weekend we can just pick up and go to any number of, sporting events, which is great. So, yeah.

Prakash: I love that. I also have a three and a two year old and they keep me very, very

Dr. DeFroda: Absolutely. Yeah, they're great ages and they're a blast, but it's, nonstop.

Prakash: Yeah. it certainly is. So you were saying though, that when you get the chance, you like to go hiking, right? You like to take them out and get in nature. Any favorite hikes or notable places that you like to go to with them?

Dr. DeFroda: So there's a lot of really good hikes around the Columbia area, that have been really nice. There's a state park called Rockbridge State Park, which we really enjoy going to, and they have this thing called like the Devil's Ice Box, where it's caves and steps and kind of this boardwalk that kind of intertwines through things. So that's a pretty fun one. And there's a fun kind of nature trail with birds and things like that, or they like, I'm sure like your kids do, collecting the rocks and the sticks and the acorns that fall off the trees. So any number of the hikes around here have that, which is great.

And then on a broader lever, my wife and I really enjoyed, a couple of the national parks. We did a few of the ones in Utah, we did the Tetons, Yellowstone, we actually did a week in Iceland, driving around the country and going on different hikes and seeing waterfalls and things like that. So just like, getting outside, staying active. Maybe it fits our surgical personalities, but we don't like to like sit still too much. So getting out there and staying active.

Prakash: I hear that, you know, just as we wrap up, I'd love to ask some quick fire questions and have you answer them. Would that be okay?

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah, absolutely.

Prakash: All right. What was your first job?

Dr. DeFroda: My first job was bagging groceries, I guess, was taking the carts in and bagging groceries at a grocery store, and then I moved up to the checkout counter.

Prakash: All right. You, yeah. You upgraded.

Dr. DeFroda: Yeah.

Prakash: What's your favorite movie?

Dr. DeFroda: Oh man, my favorite movie. Let's go with Fight Club. That was a good one.

Prakash: Oh, amazing movie. who is a hero or someone that inspires you?

Dr. DeFroda: I think this is like a corny answer, but I was just defaulted to saying my parents, I mean, I was one of four kids, they always worked very hard and just seeing the work ethic that they put, forth every day kind of instilled that work ethic in me. So, corny answer, but I'll go with my parents for that one.

Prakash: Genre of music you'd listen to during doing a long surgery?

Dr. DeFroda: I kind of leave it a little bit up to my staff cause I'm pretty flexible with music. Here in the Midwest we're big on country and I like country music, so I'm just fine with that. Every once in a day in a while, I do need kinda the modern hits or kind of some rap music. If it's something a little bit more, upbeat or if it's one that's gonna be a little bit more stressful. I do like a little bit more kind of chill, laid back easy listening music. But I think you can't go wrong with some good country music.

Prakash: Love it. And final question, if you weren't practicing medicine, what would you be doing?

Dr. DeFroda: So, lucky for me, my wife is also a physician, so my, joke answer for that one is I always say I would just be a trophy husband. You know, I would get really good at cooking and work out all the time, but in all honesty, my degree prior to medicine was in engineering. I, I still obviously do like engineering and the only thing I didn't like about is you don't get to interact with people face-to-face as much. You're a little bit more reserved during a lab, but I think I probably would've ended up as some kind of engineer or something in that nature. Once again, doing, Science things, but I think I was a little bit too outgoing for just doing engineering all day, which I think is what landed me in medicine ultimately.

Prakash: Yeah, that's fair. Well, Dr. DeFroda, it's been awesome getting to know you today. Thank you so much for your time.

Dr. DeFroda: All right. Thanks so much. Appreciate talking to you. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Prakash: Of course, and thank you all so much for joining us today. For more information, you can visit mu health.org/team docs, or you can call 573-882-BONE. My name is Prakash Chandran. Thanks again for tuning in. Be well.