Women make up 46% of medical school graduates; however, only 22% of cardiothoracic surgery trainees are women. Of the 8,617 people who have been certified by The American Board of Thoracic Surgery to date, only 308 (3.6%) are women. STS Director-at-Large Shanda H. Blackmon, MD, MPH says that has to change. She provides 10 tips on how to attract more female candidates into the specialty. Her talk originally was given at the 2018 European Society of Thoracic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Richard L. Prager, MD noted that surgeons must embrace their failures and always think about getting better—not winning, but getting better—in order to be successful.
One way that cardiothoracic surgeons can have a direct impact on federal policy affecting the specialty is by participating in the STS Key Contact program, which offers grassroots advocacy opportunities. In this episode, experienced Key Contacts share why they participate in political advocacy, describe the importance of STS-PAC, and role-play a meeting with a Congressional staff member—showing both how things can go wrong and how to make them go right.
The fine line between delivering quality treatment and embracing innovation may sometimes make cardiothoracic surgeons feel trapped between conflicting goals.
Even though an operation or a process has been around for a long time and may seem “normal,” an innovative idea can change it all. In his Presidential Address at the 2016 STS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, Mark S. Allen, MD described five common characteristics shared by innovators inside and outside of medicine and urged cardiothoracic surgeons to embrace innovation and ultimately make the specialty better for themselves and their patients.
