womeninsurgery
Before I am a Surgeon: Choosing Womanhood Without Leaving Surgery Behind.
By: Daniela H. Rodriguez Manrique "Since you want to become a wife and have kids," he said, "are you sure you want to do surgery?" I smiled politely, but I cannot recall what I said next. The only thing I remember is the question lingering in my mind after I left the operating room. "Do I want to be a woman, or do I want to be a surgeon?" Prior to this moment, I had not imagined that these two identities could be mutually exclusive. For the first time, I had doubts about becoming a surgeon, and as a medical student, I questioned if pursuing surgery meant I had to sacrifice the woman I wanted to become. Many women in surgery have encountered some version of this question. Sometimes, the question is asked out loud. Other times, it is implied. As I think of a future surgical residency, I have...
Mentorship Governs Your Relationship with Research
By: Ambreen Deol What decides whether you fall in love with research or avoid it altogether as your career takes shape? Your capabilities and academic rigor? Partly. But the real governing factor, especially when you're starting out, is mentorship. During my nearly six years of medical school in India, I got almost zero exposure to research. We crammed theory, regurgitated it onto exam papers, and rotated through wards. Research wasn't part of the curriculum, and no one really talked about it. When reading through a textbook, questions would pop into my head. Has anyone tried this? What if we did it this way? How do we know how this works? I'd just sit with the question, because I didn't know I could simply look something up. I had no clue what PubMed was. In most Indian medical colleges, the focus is overwhelmingly clinical, not academic. The advice that wasn't actionable...
Emily Blackwell Did More Than Just Operate Against the Odds, She Built a Legacy of Inclusion
By: Aeryn Kangas-Dick, MD This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Association of Out Surgeons & Allies (AOSA) in celebration of Pride Month. In 1854, a pioneer in surgery, Emily Blackwell was the second woman in the United States to receive an MD degree at what is now Case Western Reserve University.. She practiced surgery in lower Manhattan where, along with fellow surgeon Marie Zakrzewska, and her sister Elizabeth Blackwell, she was instrumental in founding a women’s hospital, the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The hospital added a medical school, which trained 364 women surgeons before closing in 1899. Dr. Blackwell first met Elizabeth Cushier when she was a student at the medical school. The pair lived together for the rest of their lives, and they raised a daughter together. Dr. Blackwell was instrumental in advocating for state funding for the hospital, which...
From Barbers to Surgeon-Scientists and Beyond: Creation of the Modern Surgeon
By Connie Shao This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Surgery did not begin as a science. Early practitioners were barbers, monks, and battlefield medics operating without anesthesia, sterility, or formal training. In ancient Mesopotamia, surgeons drained abscesses and set fractures, blending technical skill with spiritual ritual. As outlined in the Code of Hammurabi written in 1754 BCE, this was all under the threat of severe punishment for failure[1]. By medieval Europe, surgery had been pushed even further from the practice of medicine as we know it today: physicians avoided it, while barber-surgeons, who trained through apprenticeships rather than universities, became the true procedural experts[2,3]. Paradoxically, these “lower-status” surgeons had more practical knowledge than academically trained physicians. That gap began to close during the Renaissance, when figures like Ambroise Paré...
Self-Advocacy as a Trainee: The Grace to Grow
Author: Rosmi Thomas, DO As a child, I grew up in a chaotic household, but it brought me resilience and a strong sense of self. In my youngest years, we lived in an extended family home, and my older cousin was one of my first role models. Despite the 15-year age difference, she took me under her wing and provided insight on self-respect that few young people are fortunate enough to grasp. She was the first person to open my eyes to the concept of advocating for myself, and she taught me the power behind asking for what you deserve. Her genuine ability to remind you that you are deeply loved, and her persuasive charm, taught me the first and most important lesson of self-advocacy: you must know your worth. As an osteopathic medical student, I was advised on the advantages and limitations of pursuing a surgical residency. As a...
How One Question Led Me to Surgical Research: A Guide for Women in Medicine
Author: Hala AlDabbous For many medical students, research can feel like an intimidating, distant world, something reserved for residents or those with connections. I used to think the same. What I’ve learned, however, is that research is not a privilege, it is a skill, and like any skill in medicine, it can be learned, practiced, and developed over time. My journey into research didn’t begin with confidence. It began with curiosity. The turning point came during the recent surge in the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists in Kuwait. As these medications became increasingly popular, I found myself drawn not to their well known benefits, but to their less discussed clinical effects. I began to wonder what kinds of patients we might start seeing as a result, and whether there were patterns we had yet to fully understand. That curiosity made the topic feel real and relevant, something unfolding in front...
Bridges & Breakthroughs: International Medical Graduate’s (IMG’s) Preclinical Research Experience
Author: Shivani Chaudhary (M.B.B.S, M.S General Surgery) Today, I want to share a deeply personal journey of resilience and perseverance which happened during my 2.5 years of preclinical neuro-oncology research. My research years began after I had already completed three grueling years of general surgery residency training, followed by a year of service at a community health center as part of my commitment to the Indian government. The excitement of landing a funded research position in a field I was passionate about was palpable, but I had no idea what challenges lay ahead. The first three months were a whirlwind of emotions that ranged from exciting yet intimidating. I was thrust into the entirely new realm of glioblastoma research, where I had to master unfamiliar techniques and learn a completely new scientific language. I even had to confront my deep-seated fear of handling mice. There were days when self-doubt crept...
Trusting Your Own Hands: Lessons from the OR
By: Dr. Wissam Benhami, MD, General surgeon Affiliations: Université des Sciences de la Santé (Youcef El Khatib) – Algiers, Algeria and Clinique Rahmouni Djilali (formerly Les Orangers), Chikh El Bachir El Ibrahimi, El Mouradia, Algiers Every surgeon faces moments when they feel like even though their hands know the truth, doubt pushes them to look outward for guidance. I often remember this playing out in two operations linked by the same thread. My hesitation was replaced by reassurance from someone who had not lived through the case from the beginning. The first case was an emergency colectomy in an unstable patient. The resection was complete, and the question was a familiar one. Should I restore continuity or divert the patient? The tissues were distressed and the patient’s physiology was fragile. My colleague also hesitated. It was not ignorance in either of us. Instead, it was the quiet calculations surgeons make...
Cold Tech, Warm Heart: How AI makes Private Practice More Personal
By: Dr. Erin King-Mullins In the current world of medicine where burnout is on the tip of everyone’s tongue, I’d like to make another case for artificial, or augmented, intelligence. With having to care for patients in a manner driven toward documentation for insurance reimbursement, let’s discuss how template life has been normalized. How many times have you met with your EMR system team to discuss how to make as many templates as possible to improve efficiency and decrease charting time? While it may tick off a few minutes of charting time and checks off necessary boxes... at the end of the day, if you go back and actually read the notes, can you differentiate between the patients? Have you gotten to the point in medicine where you rely so much on the template that you really don’t listen to key information your patient may be sharing with you? Every...
How to Improve Your Healthcare Profile Picture: Small Visual Details That Increase Patient Trust and Strengthen Your Business
Camellia Russell MBA, DPM (c) In a world where patients choose providers online before ever walking through the door, your profile photo does more work than you think. Your healthcare business’s profile picture is an asset. Patients now choose their care providers how they choose everything else online: looking at ratings and reviews, reading comments, and yes…scrutinizing your photos before deciding who they’ll trust. These decisions are often made in seconds. Will a patient tap to book your next available appointment or swipe away? Here’s what the research says: Patients want providers who look warm, competent, and approachable. They tend to avoid providers who look cold and serious. One study published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth found that perceived warmth and approachability were two of the biggest drivers when patients choose providers online.¹ Another study from BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making discovered that facial expression and photo quality impact...
