Dr. Robert (Devanshu) Kansara is an orthopaedic surgeon who trained at the University of Michigan.
“The original U of M,” he quips. Since the beginning of the year he has been working for the Monticello Clinic out of Buffalo, but he is stationed in Monticello all the time and he makes frequent use of the CentraCare Health-Monticello Hospital operating facilities.
Dr. Kansara was an assistant team physician to the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2004 to 2014. He was also a TRIA Orthopaedic Center Fellowship faculty member and orthopaedic surgeon from 2005-2014.
Dr. Kansara completed his sports medicine fellowship at TRIA and his orthopaedic surgery residency at Wayne State University in Detroit after earning his MD at Ann Arbor.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to specialize in,” said Dr. Kansara, whose father is also a physician.
“Then I had the opportunity to take an orthopaedic rotation and the first time I saw a knee replacement operation, I knew that was it. That’s what I wanted to do.”
As an orthopaedic specialist, Dr. Kansara says his first priority is to educate the patient and help them find the right kind of care.
“I see anybody with muscular-skeletal bone or joint problems,” he said. “Some I can take care of. Others I refer to the right person.”
The injuries he saw in sports medicine mostly consisted of knee or shoulder injuries. His first patient, he says, was a 14-year old who tripped over a soccer ball and broke his ankle.
In private practice, he often sees older patients in need of knee or hip replacements. In football or hockey season more younger people are on his patient list, and he tends to be busier in the summertime than the winter.
“You would think the opposite would be true with all the ice and snow,” he said. “But people are more active in the summer. In the winter time they stay home.”
“I see whoever comes through the door,” he said. “Whether surgery is the answer for them or not, I make sure they get the best care.”
Dr. Kansara is very interested in the use of technology to improve the quality of care. One example is the use of the arthrospore for hip and joint replacement surgery.
The process has been used for repair of the ACL in the knee since the mid- 1990s. More recently it has been used in hip surgery and is being used now in shoulder surgery.
“Technology is great,” Dr. Kansara said. “But it has to be balanced with the long-term outcomes.”
Dr. Kansara said he chose to join the Monticello Clinic because it is a smaller organization and he was looking forward to having more input.
“I am a teacher more than anything else,” he said. “I love teaching. I try to educate my patients on their conditions so they can understand their options. You have to consider their health history, their expectations, what surgery can accomplish. Surgery is not always the right answer.”
People need reassurance and they want to know about the process, he said. Their expectations of the surgical procedure are often that it will just be fixed.
“But sometimes it’s only a salvage procedure,” Dr. Kansara said. “People need an understanding of when surgery can help and when it’s not worth the risk. When to cut is as important as how to cut.”
Dr. Kansara has two small daughters and coaches their soccer team. He also enjoys body building, nutrition, cooking and cars. He has traveled extensively, including trips to England, India and Kenya, where his parents met. He has been in America since 1975, when he was 12 years old and his father moved the family to Detroit.
Around his neck Dr. Kansara wears a small key his was given by his daughters during a time of personal turmoil. On it is written a single word-Hope.
“Hope is a good word for all us,” he said. “We all need hope to get along.”
