Star Athlete Becomes Five-Star Doctor
An Orthopedic Surgeon Coaches His Patients Both Inside and Outside the Operating Room
Rare is Rob Trasolini—an excellent orthopedic surgeon minus the outsized ego that can overtake an operating room. And here’s the clincher: Nurses who’ve seen him at work choose Dr. Rob, as he’s known, for their own surgeries and recommend him to relatives and friends.
Most important, perhaps, are the more than 500 strangers-turned-patients who overwhelmingly gift him with five-star reviews nicely summed up in two comments, “nice human being and great doctor,” and “he talks to me, not at me.”
As much as he loves performing surgeries, Trasolini, a sports medicine specialist, admits he likes mentoring future orthopedic surgeons just as much. “I had little exposure to medicine growing up. In a new medical school, where I was only in the second graduating class, I didn’t have prior alumni to provide direction. Given my experience, it makes sense that I want to help smooth the way for those who are coming up after me,” says Trasolini, 39, who graduated a decade ago from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and now works for Northwell Health, in several Long Island hospitals.
“At Touro, the professors and students were a team,” says Trasolini. “Look, the academic part of medical school is the same no matter where you go, and Touro’s professors knew their stuff. But what counted more was their dedication, their availability to us and the camaraderie they fostered in the students.”
Though he’s made himself available to med students and fellows for phone calls, email exchanges and in-person chats for years, it’s now official. Trasolini has accepted the position of vice chair of the TouroCOM Alumni Board. “The only difference to me is that I now have an official title for what I’ve been doing unofficially for years,” he says, laughing. “But this is good, because it helps organizationally and structurally. We can set up group events and other get-togethers to answer questions, provide prospective and help secure internships.”
Trasolini was a star lacrosse player at Colgate University and a four-sport athlete in his Long Island high school. His father, who came to America from Italy at 30 and built a construction business, died of a massive heart attack at 52, right after Trasolini, who was living in Chicago, took his Medical College Admission Test. Though he was accepted to several schools, he chose Touro, in part to be close to his mother and younger siblings. “We’re Italian,” he says, simply. “You come home.”
Trasolini is a specialist with a clinical focus on arthroscopic treatment of the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle. He specializes in complex ligament reconstruction of the knee, including, but not limited to, anterior cruciate reconstruction, posterior cruciate reconstruction and collateral ligament reconstruction. Trasolini also has a special interest in the shoulder, including arthroscopic surgery, open procedures and shoulder replacement.
Having torn his own ACL twice, Trasolini can identify with myriad of emotions of young athletes—and not so young former athletes—who need surgery, rehab and a gradual reentry to an endeavor they pursued for hours every day. “Athletes identify as athletes forever and often believe they are invincible,” he says. “Along with the physical, emotionally it can be very tough. For kids today, the pressure to do one sport only, and be excellent at it, is intense. I understand. I spend a long time talking with them about the emotional component of what they will likely experience.”
A father of three little ones, Trasolini and his attorney wife, Jennifer, live in Garden City. His mother lives a few blocks away. Trasolini coaches t-ball and elementary school lacrosse in his spare time.
Much of each day is spent performing surgeries on everyone from 12-year-old soccer stars to 68-year-old pickleball players. “I’ve found, personally and professionally, that athletes always consider them-selves athletes,” he says, adding sheepishly. “I do.”
