New Wellness Task Force Aims to Uplift, Support Colleagues
Cardiothoracic surgeons are notoriously driven, dedicated, and capable—but when it comes to taking care of their own wellness, even this community could use a little help from its friends.
The STS Task Force on Wellness stands ready to create a forum where members can learn strategies to maintain their resilience, encourage each other’s healthy habits, and challenge themselves to set new standards for self-compassion.
“One of our goals is to create an intellectual platform of material that comes from a credible community,” said Michael Maddaus, MD, chair of the newly formed task force. “We want to organize groups that work together to set new goals and employ real change in their lives.”
Physical exercise is not enough to maintain wellness, Dr. Maddaus pointed out, citing the principles that he outlined in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery article, “The Resilience Bank Account: Skills for Optimal Performance,” and discussed in a "Beyond the Abstract" podcast episode (December 2019).
His approach encompasses nine habits that can improve the well-being of all individuals. Among those habits are learning to say no to activities that might be encouraged as beneficial to a career—especially for residents—but that aren’t ultimately something the surgeon wants to do or has the resources to do, said Dr. Maddaus. “The mindset among cardiothoracic surgeons is self-sufficiency, discipline, and to be strong, no matter what. But there’s only so much bandwidth that a human being has.”
Dr. Maddaus and his fellow task force members envision opportunities within groups of surgeons to share their goals and help each other stick to them. “The group setting is a very powerful mechanism to foster accountability and change,” he said. “Within that framework, we can identify habits that we want to work on, and by the end of the year, we’d like to report on people’s experiences—to hear people say, ‘This really worked for me.’”
Stay tuned for educational offerings, podcasts, and other platforms from the task force, which will unfold its initiatives in the coming months.
Please send your feedback and suggestions to communications@sts.org.
Don’t Miss these Popular Podcast Episodes
The STS Surgical Hot Topics podcast generated 33,758 downloads in 2020, helped by the addition of a new series, “Same Surgeon, Different Light,” which features biographical interviews that celebrate the men and women behind the surgical masks. The long-range goal of this series is to promote a more diverse specialty.
Of the 39 episodes published last year, the most-downloaded were:
- Beyond the Abstract: The Future is Now (January 16, 2020)
- Same Surgeon, Different Light: Dr. Joanna Chikwe (October 30, 2020)
- Same Surgeon, Different Light: Dr. Doug Mathisen (November 13, 2020)
- Beyond the Abstract: COVID-19 Guidance for Triage of Operations for Thoracic Malignancies (April 13, 2020)
- STS Summer Series: Pulmonary Metastasectomy (July 31, 2020)
Already in 2021, STS has published several new podcast episodes, including "Same Surgeon, Different Light" interviews with Shanda Blackmon, MD, MPH, Douglas E. Wood, MD, Melanie A. Edwards, MD, Sidhu P. Gangadharan, MD, MHCM, Ourania A. Preventza, MD, MBA, Tom C. Nguyen, MD, and Elaine E. Tseng, MD. The final episode in the first season of Same Surgeon, featuring Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD, will air on April 16.
Also available for listening are powerful keynote lectures from STS 2021. All episodes are available at sts.org/podcast.
Kirk R. Kanter, MD, led the "Coding for Congenital Cardiac Surgery" session during the 2021 Coding Workshop.
Virtual Coding Workshop Answers Hundreds of Coding Questions
For the first time, STS Coding Workshop: Best Practices for Cardiothoracic Surgery—held in February— took place completely online.
The 2-day event, which had approximately 230 registrants, featured 13 hours of prerecorded presentations, including a session on 2021 documentation and coding changes. Another session highlighted telehealth practices, detailing services and flexibilities that are available during the COVID-19 pandemic and what will change postpandemic.
More than 6 hours of live Q&A webinar sessions complemented the presentations. Attendees submitted hundreds of questions, which were discussed and answered live via Zoom over the course of the event. These questions and answers, along with supplemental online modules, are available for attendees to review in the STS Learning Center, and those who missed the workshop can purchase it from the Learning Center catalog.
All course content is available until the end of the year, and attendees can claim CME credit or coding CEUs for participation.
Annals Readers Seek Articles on Novel Techniques, Evolving Tools
The most-downloaded articles from The Annals of Thoracic Surgery varied widely in topic and scope in 2020. Some, like the most-downloaded article, “Surgical Treatment of the Dilated Ascending Aorta: When and How?,” from the June 1999 issue, illustrate the continued relevance of the topic. Others, such as “Novel Percutaneous Tracheostomy for Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19,” published in September 2020, reflect a timely need for interventions during a tumultuous year.
A subscription to The Annals is a benefit of STS membership. Log in to read any of these articles at annalsthoracicsurgery.org.
