Dr. Darren Johnson, top-ranked knee surgeon, talks about his most important role

Dr. Darren Johnson, chairman of UK Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, joined us for our third installment of Making the Rounds, a blog series where you’ll get to know what our providers are like away from the hospital.

Dr. Johnson has been seeing patients, including UK student-athletes, at UK HealthCare since 1993, and thanks to his exceptional care, recently he was named one of the 16 best knee surgeons in North America.

In his free time, Dr. Johnson enjoys spending time with his wife, Nancy, a registered nurse, and their three children, Lauren, Kelsey and Brandon. All three Johnson children are pursing careers in medicine.

What person, real or fictional, do you most admire?

That’s a tough one because for me, you’d have to think of mentors that I’ve had. And that goes back to medical school at UCLA, residency at USC and then my fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. It’s probably just physician-mentors that I’ve had that I try to model myself after.

I’m a huge John Wayne fan, and I’m a Clint Eastwood fan, too. That’s probably it.

Do you have a favorite movie?

A favorite movie for me, personally? Probably “Braveheart.” Great movie, right? But yeah [my kids and I] go to movies a lot. I like to go to movies. Unfortunately, I don’t get to go enough.

Do you have a favorite meal or type of food you like to eat with your family?

Fortunately for my wife I’ll eat anything, but if I had to pick, growing up in Southern California, probably Mexican food.

When you do get time off, where do you like to go?

Destin, Florida, because we’ve always gone there since our kids were little, and that’s the kids’ favorite spot. So if it’s your kids’ favorite spot, that’s your favorite spot. Pretty simple.

How would your kids describe you?

Hard worker. Expects a lot out of them. Sometimes too honest for a father – kids don’t like honesty. You know, hopefully as a great dad. That’s my most important role – being a dad.

We have a very close family.

We asked Dr. Johnson about his work with patients with sports injuries. Watch the video: