Anthony DeFelice, MD

“Ours is almost like a family practice in orthopaedics”

At first, Anthony DeFelice, DO, wanted to be a scientist. “I did biomedical research after college,” he recalls, “and that was interesting, investigating the source of disease and the underlying problems. But I wanted to interact more with people so I did some volunteer work at a little community hospital where they stuck me in the operating room as an orderly. I got to watch them operate, and I said to myself, ‘Now that I can do.'”

Soon he had enrolled at the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Missouri, where he earned his medical doctorate. Next, he spent a year as a general surgery resident at Berkshire Medical Center before going on to complete his residency in orthopaedic surgery at Michigan State University’s Ingham Regional Medical Center. For almost ten years, Dr. DeFelice, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, has practiced in Berkshire County.

Dr. DeFelice prides himself on being a general orthopaedist. “I like doing everything,” he says. “I enjoy taking care of everybody who comes in. Ours is almost like a family practice in orthopaedics – we do grandma, the baby, the sportsman, and everybody else in
 
between – the whole package.” Among the procedures he performs regularly are joint replacements, a range of arthroscopies, shoulder surgeries, anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions in knees, and complex fractures. In particular, Dr. DeFelice treats periaritcular fracture, in which the break is peripheral to the joint.

He enjoys the give-and-take in the consulting room as much as the surgeries. “I’m going to take as much time as you need. The process is about treating people, not numbers or volume. A lot of what we do is teach. People come in for reassurance, something hurts, you don’t know what it is, you want to know what to do about it. Probably less than ten percent need an operation.”

Dr. DeFelice lives in Richmond with his wife and four children and enjoys the outdoors. “I like to walk and hike. My kids and I fish, canoe, ski, and play all kinds of sports. I hunt, too – a lot of my patients are hunters and fishermen and they tell me the good spots.”