March 31, 2021
3 min read

STS News, Spring 2021 — The Society’s charitable arm, The Thoracic Surgery Foundation (TSF), soon will accept applications for two new awards: the Underrepresented Robotic General Thoracic (URGT) Surgeon Development Award and the TSF/Francis Fontan Fund (FFF) International Traveling Fellowship.

The URGT award will be available to general thoracic surgeons who are either underrepresented, rurally located, or working with medically underserved populations and wish to establish a robotic general thoracic surgery practice. This unique educational opportunity will provide participants with skills to help create and grow a robotic general thoracic surgical practice through mentorship from an established surgeon who also is from an underrepresented group in medicine.

Recipients may receive up to $10,000 in travel-related support for themselves and their mentors. Prerequisite training will be required before the award recipient and his/her surgical assistant travel to the mentor’s institution for up to 1 week of observation and guidance.

“This is not only an opportunity for surgeons to gain robotic skills, but also an opportunity to expand the pool of underrepresented mentors,” said Melanie A. Edwards, MD, from Integrated Health Associates Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Melanie A. Edwards, MD, helped conceptualize the new TSF robotic general thoracic award.

Dr. Edwards, along with David Tom Cooke, MD, from the University of California Davis Health in Sacramento, conceptualized the award to help combat the difficulty that some surgeons encounter in finding mentorship.

“The adoption and dissemination of new technology is unfortunately uneven as a result, and patients in underserved and rural practices do not have equal access to robotic thoracic surgery,” explained Dr. Edwards.

The URGT award presents opportunities to close that mentorship gap, and the founders envision an expanding network of robotic thoracic surgeons who can collaborate to develop basic and advanced operative skills, she said.

International Traveling Fellowship 

For young faculty surgeons wishing to continue their education outside of their home countries, the TSF/FFF International Traveling Fellowship, supported by the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) and the Society, will be an exciting new option. FFF is the charitable arm of EACTS.

“This fellowship is the first collaborative effort between The Thoracic Surgery Foundation and the Francis Fontan Fund with the aim to build a global community of thoracic surgeons and give surgeons from Europe and North America the opportunity to learn from surgeons dedicated to the highest standards of cardiothoracic care,” said J. Rafael Sádaba, MD, PhD, EACTS interim secretary general and chair of the Fund.

The award—$20,000 for up to 16 weeks—is to be used for international travel to learn a novel technique, adapt innovative technology, and/or foster collaboration among surgical investigators in order to further the progress of cardiothoracic surgery at the recipient’s home institution.

Successful applicants will demonstrate a record of excellence in training and academic achievement, and they will have secured a position at a host institution and with a mentor capable of fostering their continued growth and development in the realm of cardiothoracic surgery. In addition, applicants must be cardiothoracic surgeons who are certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery or its equivalent in a country outside of the United States and within 7 years of their first faculty appointment. Mentors are required to be members of STS or EACTS.

Applications for both the URGT and TSF/FFF awards open July 1 and must be submitted by September 15. More details are available at thoracicsurgeryfoundation.org/awards.