Blogs

Dr. Alan D. L. Sihoe offers an international perspective on COVID-19 and shares his personal experience and thoughts on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected Hong Kong and what it means for the rest of the world. 

Dr. Douglas E. Wood describes the findings from the NELSON trial and what they mean for policy and program development for lung cancer early detection through CT screening.

On the surface, cardiothoracic surgeons are the embodiments of resilience. But how easily do we really bounce back from the inevitable catastrophes?

Dr. Thomas E. MacGillivray explains how the ISCHEMIA trial does not negate or even contradict the multiple previous clinical trials demonstrating the superiority of surgical revascularization over medical therapy (or PCI) in patients with specific anatomic patterns of coronary artery disease.

A 2019 article reported high incidence of discrimination, abuse, harassment, and burnout among surgical residents. Dr. Tom Varghese points out how the "good old days" of surgical residency programs were plagued by toxic culture, and that this toxicity must be stamped out to create a more productive learning environment.  

The article "Surgical Volume Matters When It Comes to Repair of Primary MR" highlights a presentation from Dr. Vinay Badhwar at TCT 2019 that showed the volume of mitral valve repair or replacement at both the hospital and surgeon levels was inversely related to the success of the mitral valve repair rate. Dr. James R. Edgerton describes the article, what it means for the cardiothoracic surgery specialty, and his view on the topic of a volume-outcome relationship in mitral valve surgery.

Creating a work culture of professionalism, personal safety, and inclusiveness is a team effort. When seeing a colleague who is undergoing sexual harassment, whether it is being subjected to sexually crude jokes, unwanted sexual attention, or even quid pro quo sexual coercion, bystander intervention is a must.  

Although the concept of parents taking time off to bond with a newborn child would seem to be a reasonable and straightforward expectation, parental leave for surgeons can still be a major logistical challenge.

Surgeons with a higher number of unprofessional behavior reports also had a significant increase in their patients' 30-day operative complication rates.