Rhode Island Magazine's 'Top Doc' cover doc is Johnston practitioner

Local doc makes the cover of RI Monthly

By BETH HURD

Dr. Michael J. Belanger, M.D., has a full life - he is a busy orthopedic surgeon who practices at the Center for Orthopaedics in the Atwood Medical Center on Atwood Avenue. A resident of Cumberland, he's married to a surgeon, Dr. Christine Emmick, who practices at Memorial and Miriam Hospitals. They are the parents of three young children.

This month, Belanger's life promises to get even busier, now that his photo has been featured on the cover of Rhode Island Monthly magazine's May issue; he was named to the magazine's "Top Doctors 2010," a list of the top 142 medical professionals in the state, as voted by their peers.

"Each year, we ask an important question of the more than 2,000 physicians licensed here: if you or a member of your family had a problem in any of the following areas, who would you want to handle treatment?," was the questioned posed by the magazine.

Belanger made the list once before, in 2002, but it was his first time appearing on the cover.

He didn't quite believe it when Paula Walker, his medical secretary, told him that the magazine wanted him to be on the cover.

"The called in a whole bunch of doctors for pictures - I thought they were photographing everybody," said Belanger. "It's pretty overwhelming."

One of his biggest fans, Walker has worked for him for the past two years. She made sure he had a hair cut and a fresh shirt before heading out for the photograph appointment.

"I told him to enjoy it while he can," she joked. "When I saw him on the cover, I said - and a lot of people said - 'how appropriate.' The patients love him, they can count on him to be there. He's very approachable, but he can be stern with patients when he needs to."

Walker immediately scanned the magazine cover, making copies for the office, and made sure Belanger sent a copy of the magazine to his mother, who lives in Connecticut. She said her boss is like a third son to her -- she has one son who is older than Belanger and another who is younger.

"I call him 'the son in the middle,'" she said.

Mailed first to subscribers, the magazine hit the newsstands a week later. Since then, people have been asking for his autograph, Belanger said.

"It was pretty shocking the first day," he said.

An avid skier and a practitioner of sports medicine, Belanger has also worked as a team physician for the U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski teams over the years. He is also chief of orthopaedics at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island Orthopaedic Society.

Belanger graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor of science in engineering in 1989, and from its College of Medicine in 1993. He met his wife during their residency at Rhode Island Hospital.

"She was a surgery resident there while I was in orthopaedics," he said.

The Center for Orthopaedics was founded in 1982. Belanger has been with the office since 2005. For more information, visit the Web site at http://centerfororthopaedics.com