Park Rapids surgical practice goes MULTI-GENERATIONAL

By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise

“It’s been good so far,” said Dr. Mark Smith, a 2008 graduate of Park Rapids Area High School and one of a father-son pair of surgeons practicing at Essentia Health-Park Rapids Clinic, with surgical privileges at CHI St. Joseph’s Health.

“Day to day, we’re not necessarily working directly with each other, but it’s certainly very helpful, starting out in a practice, having somebody that you trust to run things by and work with,” he said.

Dr. Daniel Smith has been doing general surgery with the clinic since 1989. The oldest of his five children, Mark was born a year later and now practices general surgery there as well.

“We’ve been working together now for just a few months,” said Mark. “It’s interesting how medical training takes you away for a while. I’ve been gone almost 20 years, doing that. So we’re kind of just getting started in terms of working together.”

“Mark’s practice is gradually picking up steam pretty well,” said Daniel. “I’m happy to see that.”

He added that it’s fun to have his son to discuss cases with, not to mention having Mark’s two children (plus one on the way) living nearby.

Mark and his wife, Anna, a physician’s assistant, live near his parents on Mantrap Lake, as do one of his brothers, Scott, and his family.

Though Scott and another brother, Steve, didn’t follow their father into a medical career, their sisters did. Christina takes forensic nurs-

CONTRIBUTED ing calls in the Twin Cities while working part-time in a neuro-ICU at Abbott Northwestern and studying in the nurse practitioner program at St. Catherine University.

Top: Father and son surgeons Dr. Daniel Smith, at left, and Dr. Mark Smith practice general surgery with the Essentia Health-Park Rapids Clinic and CHI St. Joseph's Health, where advanced medical technology, such as this surgical robot, is improving patient outcomes. Right: Dr. Mark Smith controls the surgery robot from this console. Increasingly complex surgeries can now be done in a minimally invasive way, sending robotically controlled instruments through smaller incisions and allowing patients to heal faster.

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