MEMBERS
(left) Dr. Harbrecht’s children: Mark, Rachel and Eric.
(above) Dr. Harbrecht (far left) with his children and wife at Christmas.
Louisville to finish his residency. It wasn’t long, however, before he
was invited back to Pittsburgh to practice surgery. He accepted the
position, and the Harbrecht family would spend the next 13 years,
from 1993 to 2006, living in Pennsylvania. time with them is figure out if they’re interested in surgery enough
to want to do it for the rest of their lives. I’m not so much selling
them on surgery, as trying to provide them an exposure to what
the surgical disciplines are like.”
“I started out at the University Hospital and also had an ap-
pointment at the VA,” he said. “Pittsburgh is very different from
Louisville, but I enjoyed the people. It took a little while to find our
niche in the community, but once our kids went to school, we were
able to find some very good friends.” Dr. Harbrecht continued, saying that even if a student doesn’t
pursue surgery, that time they spent in rotation can make a big
difference in their practice later in life.
In 2006, UofL physicians Dr. Kelly McMasters and Dr. J. David
Richardson invited Dr. Harbrecht to come back to Louisville and
practice trauma surgery. He’s been here ever since, working alongside
many of the physicians who trained him years prior.
“Dr. Richardson, Dr. Cheadle, Dr. Frank Miller who recently
passed away were always around. These are all people I took a little
bit from. I learned from how they interacted with patients and peers.
They were all role models in some form,” he said.
“If a student chooses to be a family practitioner, they’ll be better
if they understand surgical discipline and common surgery tech-
niques. If I know how to read x-rays and understand radiology, that
makes me a better doctor and a better surgeon. I try to encourage
all students to take advantage of the exposure.”
Although he’s practiced medicine for nearly three decades, Dr.
Harbrecht still loves the work he does as a surgeon. “The job is
one of lifelong learning. I’m still learning, I don’t have it all yet.”
Aaron Burch is the communications specialist for the Greater Louisville
Medical Society.
In addition to his role as Director of Trauma Surgery, Dr. Har-
brecht is also a professor of Surgery for UofL. He sees rotating
students on two to four-week blocked rotations and tries to impart
perspective on the discipline of surgery during that brief time.
“Most of the teachings my colleagues and I do are not sitting in
the classroom pontificating. We’re teaching while we make rounds,
while we’re performing surgery or even walking place to place,”
he explained. “The main thing a student needs to do during my
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