Editor’s Note: Every year, the national medical group Castle Connolly produces a list of the best doctors in America. In the Memphis area, the 2026 Top Doctors List comprises more than 400 physicians representing 60 different specialties. Here, we introduce you to one of the care-givers who have been named a Top Doc time and again.
photograph courtesy semmes murphey clinic
As a teenager, Dr. Kyle Smith used his hands to play drums at open mikes.
He now uses those hands to perform surgeries involving the spinal cord and column as well as the brain at Semmes Murphey Clinic.
Growing up in Nebraska, Smith played piano as well as drums. “Some friends and I put together a band and would just more or less do jam sessions,” he says. “I didn’t go too far with that once college hit. We only played a couple of shows, mainly in Nebraska. We’d just kind of go into a local bar and play.”
He also helped his dad, an electrician, on carpentry projects.
Smith showed an interest in science and biology in high school, but he says he didn’t have one of those “ah hah moments” when he decided he was going to become a doctor.
“I just kind of fell in love with how things work, and how the human brain actually allows you to do what you do.” — Dr. Kyle Smith
But he finally realized, “This is pretty cool. This is probably something for me. I get to do something with my hands and help people. And also there’s the biology and ‘how things work’ in regards to humans and not machines.”
As for becoming a neurosurgeon, he says, “I feel like my path has been a series of experiences that lead me here.”
Smith graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. He did his residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
Studying the brain and spine was fascinating. “I just kind of fell in love with how things work,” he says, “and how the human brain actually allows you to do what you do.”
Smith remembers that he wasn’t nervous when he performed his first operation. “I knew I was well prepared from my residency,” he says, “where they treated us well and allowed us to become independent.”
He knows you need advanced medical knowledge, especially learning the human anatomy, “to be able to operate safely and efficiently.” But he says “being good with your hands” is also a positive trait. And he attributes that to helping his dad with carpentry projects.
Smith also knew something else: “God has your back and gave you the power to do this.”
He and his wife, Becky, moved to Memphis in 2019. What makes him happiest about his job are the “people who are doing great who have way less pain or have their life back together. It’s a huge win and something that makes you very happy.”
Smith also likes to receive word-of-mouth referrals from previous patients. One couple he operated on four years ago still sends patients his way, he says. “I just saw a former patients a couple of weeks ago. They come in occasionally to check in. And they remember things about my family and ask about Ava, my child. You can tell they care about you as a person, too, and think very highly of you.”
Smith finds that former patients who still care is a heartwarming experience. “They schedule a visit,” he says, “and come in and talk even if nothing is wrong.”
