Former US Navy Commander Mike Abrashoff joins Dr. Michael Maddaus for a conversation on leadership with humanity. Abrashoff shares his success in turning around a struggling ship, the USS Benfold, which became the subject of his New York Times bestselling book, It's Your Ship. Learn how to know when it's appropriate to break the rules, when to challenge your superiors, how to do so without endangering your career and how to foster learning and innovation among the ranks of people conditioned to follow orders.
Join Dr. Michael Maddaus, host of The Resilient Surgeon, for a discussion with Amer Kaissi, professor of healthcare administration at Trinity University in San Antonio and author of Humbitious: The Power of Low Ego, High-Drive Leadership, about embracing change with an open approach rather than a defensive stance. Kaissi explains that when leaders "connect with humility and elevate with ambition" they can transform organizations.
It's not what you do — it's what you do in-between what you do — that really matters. In this episode of The Resilient Surgeon, Dr. Michael Maddaus talks with Dr. Adam Fraser, leading educator and researcher on human performance and author of The Third Space: Using Life's Little Transitions to Find Balance and Happiness, about transitioning from one role, such as a surgeon, to the next role, such as a spouse or parent. Dr.
Application Deadline for 2025 Thoracic Surgery Foundation Scholarships Is September 15, 2024
In 2023, Dr. Chizoba Efobi was awarded the Thoracic Surgery Foundation (TSF) International Medical Volunteer Scholarship and used it to participate in a surgical outreach trip to Kampala, Uganda.
Dr. Efobi volunteered at the Uganda Heart Institute, located within the Mulago National Referral Hospital. There, he joined a medical mission group from the US to mentor local healthcare providers. Their goal was to help the local team become more efficient and increase the number of heart surgeries performed each year.
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Dr. Chizoba Efobi, joined by TSF Every Heartbeat Matters awardee Dr. Pranava Sinha on the surgical outreach trip to Uganda.
According to Dr. Efobi, what made this mission unique was its capacity to involve the entire heart care team at the Uganda Heart Institute, including cardiology, anesthesia, nursing, and clinical administration. The focus was on teaching, training, and skills transfer rather than the volume of cases performed.
“I observed a different model of upscaling skills and training not limited to surgery, but across the entire field of heartcare,” explained Dr. Efobi. “In this case, skills and knowledge transfer were given the highest priority and guided other activities. The results of the sustained local capacity building were very evident.”
Bringing the Lessons Home
Upon returning home to Nigeria, Dr. Efobi’s participation in the TSF International Medical Volunteer Scholarship positively impacted his hospital, including the recommencement of the open-heart surgery program. Patients are now experiencing “uneventful perioperative periods” discharge within a week and satisfying recoveries.
Learn more about Dr. Efobi’s mission experience as a TSF International Medical Volunteer Scholar in his personal blog.
TSF, the charitable heart of the STS, is currently accepting applications for its 2025 awards season with nearly $1.7 million in available funding. Award categories include research, education, innovation, and humanitarian outreach. The application deadline for most awards is Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024.
Healthcare - and life- are filled with friction. In this episode, Dr. Michael Maddaus talks with Huggy Rao, co-author of The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier, about eliminating the forces that make it harder to get things done. Together, they dig into causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams.
This month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a new mandatory episode-based alternative payment arrangement called the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM).
Harvard Business School professor, researcher of psychological safety, and author of Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, Amy Edmondson, explains the difference between good and bad failures and how to think about and practice failure wisely. She shares examples of how people and organizations can embrace human fallibility, pursue smart risks, and prevent avoidable harm.
According to James Danckert, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo and co-author of Out Of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom, “Boredom feels uncomfortable because it is pushing you to be the person that’s in control, to acknowledge that you’re the author of your own life." In this first episode of season four of The Resilient Surgeon, Dr. Michael Maddaus speaks with Danckert about the purpose of boredom and how it can help us find meaning in our lives.
It's the August recess and lawmakers are back home in their districts campaigning and meeting with their constituents, providing a prime opportunity for STS members to support STS’s advocacy priorities.
STS will offer three concurrent half-day programs on Thursday, January 23, 2025, for attendees who want to round out their educational experience at STS 2025. These symposia are also available to attend as a standalone event (though STS 2025 attendees receive a discount when adding a pre-conference event to their meeting registration).
Symposium registration includes a Thursday evening reception, following the half-day course.
The STS oversees numerous workforces and councils with various focuses ranging from cardiothoracic clinical practice to databases to education to surgeon wellness.
