Surgeons’ Lives - Stuff that Matters

Patrick Borgen is the Chair of the Dept of Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn New York.
He also heads-up the breast program which he has developed into the only accredited breast center in Brooklyn serving over 3 million people.
Although he was born in South Dakota on a military base, he grew up in Louisiana, where he went to medical school and did his residency before moving for a Research Fellowship to Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.
He spent almost 20 years at Memorial rising to the position of Chief of the breast service.
About 10 years ago, he moved to Brooklyn, and in this conversation, he describes the culture shock of moving from an ivory tower facility full of the rich and famous to a borough where more than 50% of the patients are either under insured or have no insurance at all.
Despite that, he hasn't regretted his move for a moment and tells us about the challenges and fulfillment of working in such a setting.
When he goes home at night to his farm in New Jersey he can have fun with his dirt bikes or go out fishing in his boat. He also has a 1970s triumph sports car to take him on country drives.
In a thoroughly illuminating talk with a man who almost certainly qualifies as a polymath, he talks about the changes he has seen in breast cancer management, his brushes with royalty and celebrity as well as where he sees the future of cancer medicine is going.
Please don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel and send any comments you may have.
Also, if you prefer watching rather than listening, this interview is available on the usual YouTube channel.
#maimonides #breastcancer #academicsurgery #memorialsloanketting #Brooklyn #dirtbikes #louisiana
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/provider/dr-patrick-borgen-1700860301
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-borgen-5080831b9/
https://youtu.be/cg6WGYzUP7A?si=pQJDFtTeUpeMS8Yv
 

Professor Neil Smart is a consultant colorectal surgeon at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in the UK.
He's best known for his clinical interests in rectal cancer, hernia prevention and treatment as well as abdominal wall reconstruction. He is one of a modern generation of clinical academics despite not working in what was traditionally considered to be the main academic centers in the big cities of the UK.
Since 2019, he has been the editor-in-chief of Colorectal Disease and along with his research portfolio and editorial work. It seemed that life couldn't be better. At that point, however is life was turned upside down with the sudden appearance of dysphagia while attending a surgical conference in Turkey. The diagnosis of a locally advanced esophageal cancer soon followed and before long he was in the midst of intensive neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and finally a radical esophagectomy.
In this truly, fascinating and inspirational conversation Neil discusses many aspects of his career pathway before focusing on the unexpected events of 2024 and how he has managed to deal with the transition from being surgeon to a patient with a life-threatening disease.
Please don't forget, if you prefer watching rather than listening, this and all the other episodes of Surgeons' Lives can be found on YouTube
#surgeonslives #stuffthatmatters #esophagealcancer #colorectaldisease #mortality #lifechangingevents #cancer #whyme
@neil_j_smart on X
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=VGI6Q0MAAAAJ&hl=en
 

Professor Oscar Traynor is currently the Director of International Surgical Training Programs at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
He was born and grew up in Dublin and having originally wanted to be an airline pilot, he found that he was unexpectedly unable to pursue this career and so entered medical school to "see what I was like". He was soon sufficiently mesmerized by Medicine to pursue a career in Surgery.
As part of his training, he spent a year in London, where he encountered the late Professor Leslie Blumgart, who became a fiercely, loyal mentor and ultimately good friend throughout his entire career.
So it was that Oscar decided to pursue the relatively new specialty of liver surgery and he spent another year in fellowship with Professor Henri Bismuth in Paris.
Returning to Dublin in 1987 he started not only his consultant career but also a long journey to create a liver transplant program for the country of Ireland. Naturally this was not without some bumps in the road but over the next quarter century it turned into the success story it is today.
During the same timeframe, he developed an interest in surgical training and became Dean of Postgraduate Surgical Training at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He held this post for 23 years during which, he was responsible for the introduction of formal skills lab training through simulation and the development of human factors training.
In a fascinating interview, he has much to say about the challenges of creating a new program and the need for partnership and collaboration to achieve success.
His grandfather, after whom he was named, was a famous and prominent politician in the early 20th century in Ireland and would certainly look on the achievements of the 21st-century Oscar with both fascination and pride.
Don't forget, if you prefer to watch these interviews, the entire series is available on YouTube.
https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2021/10/professor-oscar-traynor-awarded-honorary-fellowship-of-american-college-of-surgeons
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscar-traynor-82a34225/?originalSubdomain=ie
https://www.rcsi.com/people/profile/otraynor
 

Dr. Pat Sylla is the current Division Chief of Colon and rental Surgery in Mount Sinai in New York.
She was born in Paris, grew up in the Ivory Coast in West Africa, and went to college and medical school in the US. She also completed her residency and fellowships in colorectal surgery and minimally invasive surgery.
She's probably best known as one of the great innovators in surgical technique, including TaTME which she developed while in Boston at MGH.
Because of her cosmopolitan background, she has a world view on some of the issues facing surgeons, women, and indeed herself as she reflects on how she can give back to the world that formed her as a young child.
During this fascinating interview, she describes how her first experience of finding a mentor was a complete failure, and how she has managed the challenges of being a black surgeon, female, and with a funny accent as well.
She's been hugely successful in the world of surgical academia and subspecialties societies having recently completed a highly successful year as president of SAGES while spending as much time as possible with her two growing boys - is there nothing she cannot do we ask ourselves.
This interview is appearing on her 50th birthday, which should give you some idea of how extraordinarily successful she has been in a relatively short period of time.
Of course, if you prefer to watch rather than listen, the entire interview is available on Youtube as usual.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-sylla-md-facs-fascrs-540487240/
https://health.usnews.com/doctors/patricia-sylla-588117
https://x.com/patsyllamd
 

In this latest episode of Surgeons Lives, Steve Stain recalls his journey from infancy in San Antonio, Texas, to growing up near Fresno in California and entering College and Medical School.
 
He certainly started with the basics, draining pus for his boss in a drug abuse practice. He describes being supported by some outstanding mentors in his early residency and guided into a career in Academic Surgery that proved extremely successful.
Faculty jobs in California and Tennessee led him to be recruited as Chair of Surgery in Albany, New York, and for more than a decade it was a marriage made in heaven. However, times change, and when leadership vision shifted it was time to move on to his next adventure.
The last few years has seen him, become Chair of Surgery at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts, where he describes himself as in many respect, a middle ranking manager! However, we all know that that's understating his contributions to Surgery, and to supporting his colleagues.
His story of being supported by multiple mentors in the early stages of his career is important because it's informed the way he supports young surgeons in his career as a surgical leader.
Don't forget to like, subscribe and comment on the video and if you prefer to listen rather than watch, then don't forget that this interview is on all your favorite podcast channels
#surgeonslives #stuffthatmatters #mentorship #laheyclinic @americancollegeofsurgeons #americansurgicalassociation #children #familylife #drainingpus
https://www.lahey.org/news-stories/all-news-stories/news/2021/02/steven-stain-md-named-lhmc-chair-of-surgery
https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/acs-brief/may-9-2023-issue/dr-steven-stain-acs-regent-is-the-new-asa-president/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-stain-7b03b88/
https://www.castleconnolly.com/top-doctors/steven-c-stain-surgery-
 

David Linehan MD is the current Dean and CEO of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and the Medical Center.
He grew up in Boston having lost his father as a toddler. Despite living in the tough streets of Dorchester - Whitey Bulger and all that stuff - he learned that education and hard work would lead him to a better life.
Academic achievement took him through College and the Medical School necessary to become a surgeon. A Surgical Oncology Fellowship at MSKCC in New York was the final step to establishing a successful early career as a surgeon scientist at Wash U in St. Louis where he became known as a pioneer in novel therapies for pancreatic cancer.
Rochester called and a decade as the Chairman of Surgery prepared him well for the latest step upwards to the world of Institution leadership and all that involves.
In this interview, he takes us through his early life in Boston attending school with the Bulger kids - the same school that became the epicenter of the Catholic Church scandal powerfully portrayed in the movie "Spotlight".
He talks about hitting the mentorship jackpot and what changing career directions is likely to involve.
Fascinating stuff to hear - or indeed watch on the @Youtube channel @surgeonslives 
Don't forget to Like and Subscribe please!!
#leadership #surgeonscientist #academicsurgery #surgeonslives #pancreaticcancer #surgicalresearch #worklifebalance #surgery #hobbies #mentorship #becomingadean #spotlight #whiteybulger #Boston #bostonirish
https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/david-linehan-named-ceo-of-university-of-rochester-medical-center-576112/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-linehan-urmc/

Latest episode of #Surgeonslives #Stuffthatmatters has landed with an interview with another surgeon from the UK
 
Gill Tierney is a force of nature. A general and colorectal surgeon who works in the midlands of the UK she rose to become the second woman elected President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.
By her own admission she has never been afraid to speak out and is generally a chatty person - but one who specializes in connecting people who might do great things together.
She has clear views about the gender challenges in modern surgery - but they might be different to the obvious perhaps? Married to another colorectal surgeon, she certainly understands the work-life balance dilemma and wants to see that expand far beyond gender choices.
Female mentors, worrying about old white males, pieces of life advice and how to change the NHS are all discussed here in a fun ride through a career.
Don't forget, if you prefer to watch rather than listen, the interview is available on my @surgeonslives channel on @Youtube
Please like, subscribe and send some comments to the channel.
#surgeonslives #stuffthatmatters #darzireport #asgbi #acpgbi #worklifebalance #femalesurgeons #burnout #lifestyle #genderequality #workforceintelligence #surgery #surgeon #surgeryeducation #lookslikeasurgeon
https://www.asgbi.org.uk/about-us/surgical-leaders-in-management-slim/gillian-tierney

Nat Soper is one of the best known laparoscopic surgeons worldwide. He was there at the very beginning and was definitely one of the true innovators in laparoscopic, minimally invasive, natural orifice surgery.
He is currently the Chair of Surgery at Banner health in Phoenix, but that was never his intention!
He describes in this interview, a stellar career culminating in being Division Chief at Northwestern in Chicago, where he was for more than a decade before it was suddenly decided that he was surplus to requirements without warning.
Not very many surgeons are willing to speak openly about such dramatic life change, so don't miss this opportunity to hear his views on the stresses and traumas of having to make a life change that was definitely not planned.
If you prefer to watch, then this interview is available on @Youtube @Surgeonslives.
Please don't forget to like and subscribe and send us comments.
https://phoenixmed.arizona.edu/surgery/soper
https://uacomp.resoapps.com/RA122001-Nathaniel_J._Soper/biography/index.hml
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-soper-2a0bb61b7/
 
#sages #employment #gettingfired #selfdoubt #medicalpolitics #surgery #lifestyle #lifestress #worklifebalance #mentorship #laparoscopicsurgeon #robotics
 

Tom Watson is a thoracic surgeon of excellence and works at Corewell Health in Michigan.
A Midwestern boy by background he became part of the USC esophageal gang under the mentorship of Tom DeMeester.
He then spent 20 years at the University of Rochester where he rose through the ranks to become Professor of Surgery and then in 2016 moved to become a system chair at MedStar in Washington DC.
That wasn't an entirely happy experience and he talks about unhealthy organizational cultures being the trap that awaits the unwary.
He is now happily based near Detroit and once again a highly successful clinical academic surgeon. He talks about his newfound faith in the concept of stoicism, as well as his musical background in college where he played in abandon to make beer and food money.
Anyone planning to rise up through the ranks of Surgical leadership should listen to this interview and understand some of the real world challenges.
If you prefer to watch, then don't forget this is available on @Youtube @surgeonslives
 https://www.ctsnet.org/home/thwatson
https://doctors.beaumont.org/provider/thomas-j-watson/1922627
 

Phil Schauer is one of the nations best known bariatric surgeons.
He spent many years and rose to fame in the world of metabolic surgery when in the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio before recently moving to Louisiana and the Pennington Research Institute where he continues to make a difference to patients with morbid obesity and metabolic syndrome.
In this discussion, he describes how Bariatric Surgery was the redheaded stepchild of Surgery for many years and suffered from bias and bigotry, as well as the refusal to accept that this was an actual disease process. Despite this, the number of bariatric procedures being performed continues to grow day by day with better and better outcomes.
In this wide ranging interview, Phil tells us about his early life in Texas stumbling into the world of MIS and learning from others around the world how to make an impact and improve the lives of many patients.
He's a true surgeon scientist with almost 400 peer reviewed publications and can't decide whether he prefers wine or beer. He's a big Beatles fan and would like to have dinner with Muhammad Ali.
Don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel and if you prefer to watch then don't miss the @YouTube video version
https://www.fmolhs.org/sgbr/about/philip-r-schauer
Twitter https://x.com/pschauermd?lang=en
https://asmbs.org/about/asmbs-presidents/philip-r-schauer/
https://www.pbrc.edu/research-and-faculty/faculty/Schauer-Philip-MD.aspx
 
#morbidobesity #bigotry #fakediets #bariatricsurgery #gastricbypass #gastricsleeve #lapband #surgery #lifestyle #worklifebalance #societyelections #leadership #MIS #laparoscopy