“I think of myself as a minimally invasive surgeon.”

Dr. Brasseur is a board-certified radiologist. Originally trained in internal medicine, he set out expecting to practice family medicine. “My father and a couple of uncles were physicians, so I followed in their footsteps. I was planning to take over my father’s practice, but purely by chance I was invited to be a radiology resident. I’m very happy I took advantage of the opportunity.”

Dr. Brasseur has added qualifications after completing a fellowship in angiography and interventional radiology. “I perform angioplasties, biopsies, and image-guided procedures using ultrasound, fluoroscopy and CAT scans. It involves extensive work with dialysis and oncology patients.” Such non-invasive procedures can pose fewer risks than more traditional surgeries and require less recovery time.

Dr. Brasseur relishes the intellectual challenge of his work. In the high-tech hospital of today, radiology is essential to the care of virtually all of the patients in the hospital. “We interact with many of the physicians in the hospital daily, helping diagnose their patients’ problems and planning their treatment.” The radiology department is also actively training young doctors in the residency program. Currently, Dr. Brasseur is engaged in testing a new technique that he developed for placing chemotherapy ports in a prospective randomized trial at BMC.

A graduate of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri, Dr. Brasseur completed his radiology residency at Michigan State University and his angiography and interventional fellowships at Wayne State University. He is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is section chief of interventional radiology and chairman of the Radiology Department at BMC.

He admits to a certain culture shock upon coming to Berkshire County almost five years ago after his years working in urban Michigan. Today he enjoys the outdoors, biking in the summer and skiing in the winter, and he says it would be difficult to leave the area. A weight lifter and the father of one daughter, Dr. Brasseur resides in Dalton.