I have a cool job.

Really.

I apply detailed knowledge of human anatomy and biomechanics in an effort to repair what is damaged by time, age or misfortune. I see things average people will never see, like the amazing structure of a bone, muscle or nerve during an operation, and getting to put them back together like a complex jigsaw puzzle is incredible.

While I am the first doctor in my immediate family, I was encouraged to enter the medical field by strong role models in every physician I knew. Medicine provided the opportunity to intervene in the lives of thousands of people. Academic medicine at UC provides the opportunity to multiply that effect further by training the best surgeons for tomorrow.

I chose to pursue orthopaedic surgery when I noticed how common musculoskeletal diseases were, and yet how little emphasis was placed on them during my undergraduate medical education. I often ask my students to consider how many friends of family members ask them “Hey, doc—why does it hurt every time do this?” as they make a motion with their knee or shoulder. I then ask them to consider how many people ask them “Hey,do c— should my cardiac ejection fraction be over 50 percent?” There are far more questions about musculoskeletal aspects of health because we feel our muscles, joints, necks and backs as we ride them every day, during work and play.

While the stresses are often higher, and my patients and I both take greater risks in doing what we do, the end result is more often one of greater pain-free function.

Working at UC provides me the opportunity to treat not only routine disorders of the spine, but highly complex problems referred from around the region. Patients with multiple problems who require extensive spinal reconstruction undergo surgery and recover with the help of our terrific team of critical care providers. Cincinnati primary care physicians provide excellent care to patients with back and neck problems, such that only a small percentage of people require specialty care.

Through UC Health’s two facilities at University Hospital and West Chester Hospital, we are able to offer patients not only the extremely specialized tertiary care that that is expected from the region’s academic and research center, but also efficient, routine care in an easily accessible and pleasant suburban, community ambiance.

So do I think anyone has a cooler job?

An astronaut, maybe? 

Nope  Spine surgery at UC does the trick for me.

Ferhan Asghar, MD, sees patients at the UC Health Physicians Office in West Chester. For an appointment, call (513) 475-8690. He will participate in a free seminar on chronic back pain at West Chester Hospital from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27. To register, call (513) 298-3000