Dr. Joseph Robert Behrens

My younger brother had cystic kidney disease in utero. I went to the hospital with my parents for prenatal visits. The doctors became my heroes and inspired me to follow their path. I have a background in engineering -- I always liked working with my hands -- and surgery has some similarities with engineering: You diagnose a problem and fix it. What I like about surgery is that when patients come in with specific pathologies or pain, we can diagnose it and fix it. A general surgeon needs to be flexible. Surgeons need to adapt to offer the most advanced procedures to their patients. I focus on robotic-assisted surgery. The field has advanced greatly in the last ten years. We can do minimally invasive robotic surgery and with a procedure that would have required a large open incision twenty years ago. The best part about being a physician is when patients come to you with a problem that you can fix, and the satisfaction you get from helping someone restore their lifestyle.