Association for Academic Surgery (AAS)
Inspiring and Developing Young Academic Surgeons
The Academic Surgeon is the official blog of the AAS. We post anywhere from one to three times a week and our contributors will focus on issues relevant to young academic surgeons, residents, fellows, and even medical students.
If you would like to contribute, please submit your post here: https://www.aasurg.org/the-academic-surgeon-blog-submission/
The AAS offers two travel awards to attend the 2019 Academic Surgical Congress, held February 5-7, 2019 in Houston, Texas: Senior Medical Student Travel Awards Deadline extended: August 6, 2018 Complimentary registration for the Academic Surgical Congress held in Houston, Texas, February 5-7, 2019, plus a $500 travel stipend – Click HERE to read more …
We are making resident well-being a priority in the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern. To us (residents in the department and its director), well-being is not a cursory objective but rather a conviction sounded repeatedly. There have been too many undue hardships during training, unheard grievances of marginalized residents, and stories …
Think of some of your favorite classic children’s stories. Stories such as The Little Engine that Could, The Giving Tree, The Rainbow Fish, Where the Wild Things Are, and so many more… These books shaped our view of hard-work, determination, generosity, acceptance of self and others, and forgiveness (and probably may more things) in ways …
As I was plotting my career path during residency – should I do research, what specialty to go into, etc. – one of my mentors suggested that I think about the day-to-day ennui and challenges that a field offers rather than focusing only on spectacular events that are far and few between. For example, it …
Undoubtedly, there are numerous surgeons who are incredible educators, but many find it becomes more difficult to connect with medical students as they grow in their own careers. The stress of deadlines, challenges in teaching complex cases to the residents and fellows, administrative duties, and family needs all drain energy and enthusiasm. It becomes easier …
Many developing countries have strategic plans to address major public health issues such as vaccinations, tuberculosis or HIV, but only four have formal plans specific to surgical conditions. To address this problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery, hosted its first technical workshop in …
As a surgical resident, the single most common prescription I write is for an opioid. While opioids are a very effective way to treat our patients’ pain after surgery, they are also at the center of an exploding public health crisis. Annual overdose deaths are at their highest rate ever and millions of American’s have …
In recent years, social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Doximity, and Facebook have become important tools for surgeons to network, learn, educate, disseminate research, and to foster mentorship and long-standing professional connections. A recent Journal of Surgical Research article by Heather Logghe MD et al. describes how surgeons in particular can use Twitter to …
Leadership skills development is key to professional growth. Though not a specific competency expected of general surgery residents, we all expect our trainees to grown into team leaders over the course of training. In the General Surgery Milestones, leadership is not a specific category, but to achieve the highest competency, the trainee “assumes overall leadership …
Chris was dying when I first met him. He had been shot a few minutes before and was now in the trauma bay bleeding to death. I was the trauma surgeon on call; I operated on him. He had an iliac artery and colon injury. We repaired the artery and resected the colon, forming an …
