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/
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 …
“What’s the difference between God and a surgeon? God doesn’t think He’s a surgeon.”1 Jokes like these are very commonplace; they poke fun at the notion that surgeons are arrogant, overconfident, and mean. As a fourth year medical student going into general surgery, I have been told by my classmates, residents, and attendings that I …
Spring is a time for cleaning. Many of us will find the time in the Spring season to declutter our closets, deep clean our homes, or freshen up our gardens. We toss out, re-cycle or donate items that are worn out, not useful, not serving a purpose, or not bringing us joy. But sometimes it …
Anyone who has travelled to another country knows that language holds great insight into how a culture views the world. The words we choose provide understanding into how we view the complexities of our society. There are many words we use to categorize countries. Ways that we make clear that not all countries have the …
The prototypical international surgery experience is the short-term surgical mission (STSM). The transient nature of STSM attracts volunteers who can afford to spend limited time away from careers, families, and other responsibilities. However, the temporary care and support provided avails the organizations running these missions to criticism. Continually, several questions go unanswered: what happens when …
