Kevin R. O’Neill, MD, MS

To be a great surgeon, you have to be a great doctor.

By that, I mean you have to be great at getting the correct diagnosis so you can offer the best treatment options. This really starts by listening and empathizing so I can tailor care recommendations based on each patient’s situation. And, more often than not, the best treatment option is not surgical.

If surgery becomes an option, having skill is obviously important, but it’s also important to be able to offer an array of surgical options. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Being able to offer a wide variety of surgical approaches using the latest technologies allows me to provide each patient with an individualized surgical plan.

Absolutely! Participating in athletics teaches many great lessons, like how hard work, practice, and preparation are not just the key to success in team sports but also practicing medicine and nearly everything else in life.

Performing and keeping up to date on the latest research gives me a much deeper understanding of the latest questions about spine surgery techniques and how current standards have evolved. In practice, this means I can provide my patients with the most innovative and cutting-edge care options.

Since I can only pick one, I have to say it was really special to be offered a job at Vanderbilt after I had finished five years of residency training there. It felt like such an honor for them to want me to return after I had just started my practice.

My time there was incredible. I performed some of the most complex spine surgeries and participated in the training of orthopedic and neurosurgery residents.

When I was about 12 years old, I got my first job: cutting lawns and landscaping for a small business. My dad was an engineer at John Deere, so I would get to try out the latest equipment, which I thought was pretty cool.

I probably didn’t always love it, but now I remember that experience fondly. Even today, I still enjoy being outside and working in the yard.

I have always loved math and science. As an undergrad at Notre Dame, I chose to study engineering, but a part of me was always fascinated with medicine.

I ended up completing pre-medical requirements, but I wanted to try biomedical engineering as a way to bridge my interests, which led me to pursue a master’s degree at MIT.

Ultimately, I just didn’t feel a strong enough connection with patient care on that track, and I wanted to have a more personal and direct positive impact on patients. So I switched gears a bit and went off to medical school at Indiana University, where my brother had just started his training.

From there, I completed my orthopedic training at Vanderbilt University and spine training at Washington University. Then, after three years of starting my clinic practice back at Vanderbilt, I came to OrthoIndy.

I like to dabble in a variety of things and find my interests wandering between things fairly often. I feel better and more balanced by keeping some sort of exercise in my life, lately through working out in the gym or playing tennis.

I like golf, but I don’t like the time it takes to play. I absolutely love being on the lake and doing all the water sports—wake surfing, wakeboarding, and skiing. I also love snow skiing and taking ski trips with my family.

Playing guitar for the past few years has been really fun. I’m not great, but it’s mostly relaxing (sometimes frustrating).

Lastly, I seem to spend a good bit of time in the yard, doing little landscape projects here and there. That probably sounds like work, but since I’m doing it voluntarily and enjoying it, I’ll call it a hobby.

I admire my dad. He grew up in a big city with a large Irish family. Little was expected of him, but he had the drive to work several jobs and put himself through school. My dad was the first in his family to go to college. He earned an engineering degree, served in the Army, and—later—worked for GM and John Deere (where he spent most of his career).

My parents sacrificed so much for me and my siblings. They helped put all of us through college and postgraduate schools, which included Notre Dame degrees for all four of us!

Calm and humble, my dad was always there for us, instilling the values of hard work, but he also taught us to let loose and have a good time.

I hope my patients remember me as a kind and caring physician who helped them with their problem and got back to a better life.