New Physicians Join the Team in August

Dr. Koval will see patients starting August 1st at the Cedar Park and Northwest Austin locations.

Robert J Koval, Jr, MD, is board certified in Internal Medicine and completed Fellowship training in Rheumatology in 2011. Dr. Koval graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Biology, after completing high school in Laredo, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, where he was accepted into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society, graduating near the top of his class.

After completing his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver, Dr. Koval worked for a year in hospital medicine at Denver Health Hospital. He then returned to the
University of Colorado for Rheumatology specialization training. He has a special interest in autoimmune disorders, arthritis, and osteoporosis. After moving to Austin to join Texas Orthopedics, Dr. Koval will be starting an infusion center to assist in the treatment of various Rheumatologic diseases. He is a member of the American College of Rheumatology and the International Society for Clinical Densitometry.

In his spare time, Dr. Koval enjoys spending time with his wife Erin and young son Joshua. He also enjoys watching and attending sporting events (Hook 'em Horns!), traveling, and many outdoor activities.

Dr. McDonald will see patients starting August 22th at the Northwest Austin and South Austin locations.

John E. McDonald Jr., M.D. is a native of Houston, TX. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in Washington, DC where he played NCAA Division I tennis for the Hoyas. He went on to attend medical school at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas where he was named to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, an honor given to those graduating in the top 10% of their class. Dr. McDonald completed his residency training in orthopaedic surgery at UT Southwestern and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. After being selected as one of two Chief Residents, he spent time overseas in Norwich, England where he worked exclusively with knee and shoulder surgeons and learned a tremendous amount about cost effective medicine.

In order to further specialize after his training, Dr. McDonald was selected to attend a one year fellowship in sports medicine and arthroscopy at the prestigious Steadman Clinic and Steadman-Philippon Research Institute in Vail, Colorado. While in Vail, he trained directly under many of the world's top experts in the field of orthopaedic sports medicine and hip, shoulder, and knee arthroscopy and reconstruction. Additionally, he had the privilege of providing care to numerous professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, PGA tour, and professional tennis as well as collegiate, high school, and recreational athletes. He served as the team physician for the US National Snowboard team at the 2011 World Championships and was one of the team physicians for a local high school in Colorado.

Throughout his clinical training, Dr. McDonald has been involved in research in the field of orthopaedics. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and has co-written several book chapters and review articles on a variety of topics including hip arthroscopy, multi-ligament knee injuries, and traumatic should and hip injuries. He has presented his research at multiple national meetings.

Dr. McDonald specializes in hip, knee, and shoulder arthroscopy and orthopaedic sports medicine. A sports enthusiast all his life, Dr. McDonald encourages a team approach with each of his patients. When patients, their families, physical and occupational therapists, and physicians all work together, the patient can achieve a quicker recovery and the success that they desire through both surgical and nonsurgical means. Patients enjoy his friendly, open, and personalized approach to care. He encourages questions and always takes the time to get to know his patients and thoroughly understand their concerns.

Currently, Dr. McDonald is a team physician for the US Ski and Snowboard teams. He is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and a candidate member of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. In his free time, he enjoys running, golf, hiking, skiing, and basketball. He is joined in Austin by his wife, a University of Texas alumna and dermatologist, Halliday (Hallie) McDonald, MD, and their daughter.

Texas Ortho doctor speaks at national orthopedic meetings

John McDonald, Jr., MD, who will join Texas Orthopedics this August, has been busy giving presentations at national orthopedic meetings this summer. He was selected to give a podium presentation at both the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Arthroscopy Association of North America and the annual meeting of The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. The presentations were focused on findings related to two recent studies of elite athletes who returned to play quickly and at a high performance level following arthroscopic microfracture surgery of the hip. To learn more about Dr. McDonald, visit his bio on our website!

Free Joint Replacement Seminar this Thursday

Learn more about non-surgical arthritis treatment options as well as total hip and total knee replacement surgery at Arthritis Camp! Refreshments are served. Bring your friends and family!

Date: Thursday, July 7th
Time: 5 PM to 7 PM
Location: Northwest Austin, 4700 Seton Center Pkwy, Ste. 200, Austin, TX 78759
Speaker: Marc DeHart, MD

Please RSVP by registering online or call 439-1100.

This FREE informative seminar is held the first Thursday of every month so if you can't make it this Thursday, plan to attend our next seminar on August 4th!

Texas Orthopedics Celebrates 25 Years of Providing Orthopedic Care

Founded July 1, 1986 by two orthopedic surgeons and one physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, Texas Orthopedics has grown into the largest provider of orthopedic services in Central Texas, now comprised of twenty-one physicians and six locations.

We'd like to thank all of our loyal patients and referring physicians for letting us care for your orthopedic needs over the last 25 years. We look forward to continuing our relationship with all of you!

Congratulations to our doctors listed in Super Doctors!

Nine Texas Orthopedics physicians have been named by his/her peers to the Super Doctors list.

- Bradley Adams, DO
- Barbara Bergin, MD
- Donald Davis, MD
- Robert Foster, MD
- Peter Garcia, Jr., MD
- Tyler Goldberg, MD
- Richard Lutz, MD
- Scott Smith, MD
- Archie Whittemore, MD

To learn more about the physicians at Texas Orthopedics, click here!

Be Kind to Your Hands

Post provided by Barbara Bergin, MD


Here are some tips on how to ease the load on your hands. Follow these recommendations and maybe I’ll be seeing less of you!

1) Invest in a nice electric can opener. It’s hard to open cans and once you get arthritis, it’s nearly impossible. So why not start using the electric can opener before you get it? I used to hate electric can openers because of that greasy, black coagulum of old tomato juice and pork and bean gravy that collected in its little gears. But now you can remove that piece and wash it! Using an electric can opener will spare your thumb a lot of stress over the decades.

2) Use jar opening gadgets and bang the lids on the counter top before trying to open them. Spreading your hands out and doing something as strenuous as opening large jar lids and tight bottle tops really strains those delicate joints. Again, once you have arthritis, you won’t even be able to try. Don’t wait until you have pain to start using these handy little devices. I also like to use those little rubber pads.

3) Notice how you grab the steering wheel in your car. Do you hold it with your four fingers wrapped tightly around the wheel and your thumb hyper-extended like a hitch hiker? Try to relax your hands on the wheel. This position puts a lot of pressure on the base of your thumb also. Many of my patients have pain when they drive. I encourage them to wear driving gloves and even to put a sheepskin cover on the steering wheel. You can grab tightly while using these items, but they’ll create a subconscious reminder to loosen your grip.

4) Get smaller milk cartons, or the cartons with a handle instead of the big square half gallon cartons. Again, that wide grip is the perpetrator of harm to your thumb.

5) Same goes for big books, notebooks, dictionaries, and family Bibles. Don’t just grab them with one hand from the shelves. Lift them with two hands; one pulling from the top and the other supporting the bottom of the book.

6) Use an electric toothbrush rather than an old school brush. Again, that grip with the thumb hyper-extended should be minimized. You grab an electric toothbrush with your fist and you don’t have to manually move it up and down like you do with the old school brush. Cavemen didn’t brush their teeth.

7) I’m going to pull my first plug against pushups and I know I’m going to get loads of hate mail, just like I did when I came out against squats. I love the idea of pushups. It’s a cheap, easy way to get a full body workout. You can do it when you’re out of town and have no access to a gym. You can do it if you don’t want to go to a gym or buy your own weights. You can use them to help count scores at a football game, even when the scoreboard works just fine. They’re just fun! But I see tons of patients who have injured their hands and wrists doing pushups. I know someone will ask about using pushup bars. Yes, they help reduce some of the stress of pushups by loading the wrist in a more biomechanically advantageous way, but there are other issues to be further discussed later. Remember, our little hands and wrists evolved away from being weight bearing structures to being dexterous structures; best used for delicate manipulations. So don’t go four-legged on me.

8) Use gloves when doing dirty or heavy work; weight lifting, gardening, construction. They protect your hands from injury and infection, but also allow you to loosen your grip.

9) Don’t try to carry 10 bags of groceries from your car to the kitchen. I used to sling one bag on every finger, two on some if the bag was light. Believe it or not, I’ve seen patients develop finger tendonitis and “tennis elbow” from doing just that. Take your time. Frankly, taking your time is a good adage in general. Often we injure ourselves because we’re in just too dang much of a hurry.

10) Don’t persevere with any activity that causes pain in your hands, thinking you can just work through it. Give it a rest. I’m thinking of my patients who spend an entire day cutting paper or fabric with scissors, all the while developing a numb spot on the side of their thumb. That can cause permanent damage. Stop. Use different scissors. Rest. Get some gloves. Let someone else do it for awhile.

11) Always try to negotiate with others by using your words and not your fist. The fist almost always loses against teeth, walls and windows. It sometimes wins against noses and tummies.

Dr. William Taylor helps underserved patients needing orthopedic care

Read Dr. Taylor's article in the Austin American Statesman



Read Dr. Taylor's bio!