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/
As a junior general surgeon resident, I remember learning from one of my most respected mentors, Dr. Berne, that to be a great surgeon, I must have “the eyes of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the hands of a woman.” I remember thinking, “Oh good, I am glad I am starting out …
As an engineer by training, it makes my ears hurt to hear about “robotic surgery.” A robot, by definition, is completely automated and does not require the real-time input of a human to perform its task. Think “Terminator”, “R2D2”, or the more common assembly line robot in an automobile factory that welds the same chassis …
Most academic surgeons strive to practice evidence-based medicine: we critically evaluate the literature and apply it to patient care in order to deliver the best possible outcomes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for how we select our residents. For many general surgery residency programs, the process seems rather…arbitrary. With the caveat that this is …
With the official start of summer just last weekend, and so much sunny, sandy, poolside cabana-filled life waiting right outside your hospital’s sliding doors, I wanted to use this opportunity to remind you of the importance of unplugging. However, in my cursory search of Pubmed, OVID, and UpToDate, I’ve been unable to find any good …
sinistral adjective | si?nis?tral | ’si-n?s-tr?l, s?-?nis- | of, relating to, or inclined to the left: as a: left-handed Before the musings about left-handed surgeons begins, I have a significant disclosure to make: I am left-handed. This was just confirmed by the 1971 Edinburgh Handedness Inventory [1] which puts me in the worst-possible 10th decile …
As the new academic year approaches, we prepare to welcome a new cohort of surgical interns. For the newly graduated medical student, it is a time of both anticipation and trepidation, with many soon-to-be interns expressing concerns about their preparation for the rigors of surgical residency. Surgical educators have long mirrored these concerns, bringing up …
Approximately 5 billion out of 7 billion people in the world have no access to basic surgical care. Lack of access to safe and timely surgical care results in more deaths and disability than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Although international priorities are starting to reflect the importance of non-communicable diseases, provision for essential services …
How does one become a successful leader? This book attempts to answer this question by providing a study of leadership and its role in the success of an academic surgeon’s career. This book contains chapters written by current leaders in surgery that teach the theories and concepts behind leadership and explain the skills and traits …
As health care reform marches on, there is continued pressure to deliver care for lower-cost and higher quality in order to provide more value. With smart phone technology becoming ubiquitous in the general population, leveraging this patient owned resource has become the focus of both large Silicon Valley-based corporations as well as independent technology entrepreneurs. …
What goes around comes around. I did my general surgery residency at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. Looking back I can see how hard they worked to systematically try to educate us inside and outside of the operating room; especially outside. I remember feeling that the mandatory lectures and skill sessions were detracting from my …
