Surgeons’ Lives - Stuff that Matters

Professor Ronan O'Connell was born and raised in Dublin and still lives there today with his wife Pauline.

He became a colorectal surgeon almost by chance during a research fellowship and then rose to the very top in everything he touched - Chair of Surgery, President of RCSI and ESA, Editor of the world's most successful surgery textbook.

In this interview he describes a life journey from an intellectual start discussing linguisti...

Justin Dimick is of course one of the nest known and highly successful surgical academics in the US. First and foremost he is a passionate surgeon with a mission to improve the outcomes for his patients as well as patients worldwide through "understanding the data".

A Health Services Researcher par excellence he has co-authored some of the seminal papers in the "Quality" field with some giants in the field along the way.

He has mos...

Liane Feldman is the Chair of Surgery at McGill in Montreal and not that long ago was President of Sages.

She is Canadian through and through and has spent almost all of her career in her home city.

Naturally she is a "Habs" hockey fan and avid outdoors enthusiast - running, cycling and skiing or simply being at her lakeside cottage. A recent empty nester she is very proud of her three kids culinary skills apart from anything else.

Tracy Hull has been part of the furniture at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for 3 decades. A self-confessed "plodder" she has nonetheless reached the top of the mountain as a colorectal surgeon and fierce patient advocate.

Born into the family veterinarian business she was closing surgical wounds with her dad from the earliest of years so perhaps it was always going to be the career of a surgeon in her future.

A passionate lover of...

Professor Sir Norman Williams is a big cheese in many areas.

First off, he has been a big name in the colorectal surgery field for decades, contributing so game-changing papers on rectal cancer and pelvic floor diseases. I first met him in 1984 so this was a fascinating discussion for us both.

Alongside the clinical and research achievements, he became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and continues today to adv...

Frederick L Greene MD - Rick to his innumerable friends and colleagues - has been at the center of the cancer world for decades.  Known for his long-standing editorial role with the AJCC Staging Manual he served as Chair of the Commission on Cancer at the American College of Surgeons. He remains passionate about the role of Cancer Registries and most importantly, the Cancer Registrars themselves.  He still serves as the Medical Dir...

Jim Fleshman is the Chair of Surgery in Dallas - he moved to Baylor about a decade ago after a stellar career almost entirely at Wash U in St. Louis.

Born in New Orleans he essentially grew up in Bangor in Northern Ireland in the midst of "The Troubles" before the family moved to the Mid-West where he spent most of his adult life.

An early advocate of the academic way in colorectal surgery he led a number of NCI funded trials while...

Joep Knol is a Dutch surgeon who has worked for many years in Belgium where his reputation for technical mastery and educational innovation has produced global recognition.

His iLapp foundation was started to try and produce a new pathway for teaching surgery which has become a passion. Growing up an undersized kid in Nigmegen - remember the movie?? - he was an enthusiastic and skilled goalie who idolized the great Johann Cruyff. H...

Andrew Stevenson is one of Australia's foremost Colorectal Surgeons. Brought up in Melbourne he was there at the start of laparoscopy during his Fellowship in Brisbane - where he has stayed for all of his Consultant career.

However, it would be a mistake to think he is a home boy. He travelled alone from Melbourne to Vancouver when he was 14 - and stayed for a year of high school. he fell in love with snow sports and is now a quali...

Tim Pawlik seems to do it all - Surgical Oncologist, Researcher, Chairman - as well as a huge sports fan (Buckeye and Boston), family man and devoted fish watcher.

Trained in Boston, Michigan and Texas he landed in Johns Hopkins for 5 years where he hones his craft as an HPB surgeon before becoming Chair of Surgery at Ohio State in Columbus some 7 years ago.

In this (standing) interview we hear about his early life and decision to ...

Neil Hyman reached the top in colorectal surgery having realized he was too slow and short to be a professional basketball player. The NBA will never know what they missed!

Growing up in New York he trained with giants like Randy Steinhagen and Vic Fazio before spending the bulk of his career at the University of Vermont and then finally the University of Chicago.

A former President of ASCRS he is as passionate about IBD now as he ...

David Rattner has had a stellar career in surgery and his academic achievements should be an inspiration to all surgeons. Decades of clinical and innovation contributions in Boston where he was a fixture at MGH brought many awards including his personal ambition of being a full Professor.

President of SAGES followed along with mentoring many young surgeons and being one of the originators of NOTES. However, it's his comments on lif...

John "Tarp" Tarpley is quite simply a force of energy - blessed with an excellent thyroid gland he says! Despite being long past "retirement" age he continues to work as a huge force for good in African surgery driven by a passion for teaching and his lifelong personal faith.

He is a legend in Vanderbilt where he was Program Director for many years, operative teacher and missions based surgeon. He says he is planning to travel mor...

Undoubtedly one of the most famous surgeons in the world, Steve Wexner has his fingers in so many pies. He should have followed the family tradition and become a lawyer, judge or politician - but then he might have ended up on the Supreme Court or in the White House!

As it is, he has been a leader of countless organizations and President of many. A Brooklyn boy he had a vision for a career in surgery firmly in his mind from the out...

This is a special interview you should definitely not miss.

First a disclaimer - Vivian has been a friend since we were medical school classmates more than 40 years ago!!

For the first half hour Vivian describes his early career in Ireland and Canada as a GP before retiring to Ireland after a family tragedy. Stumbling into some surgery training jobs he spent a year in transplantation and his career path was launched Back to Canada ...

On paper Keith Lillemoe MD is the Chair of Surgery at Mass Gen Hospital where he has been for 12 years.

Before that he was Chairman in Indiana after 29 years in Baltimore where he was a medical student, resident and highly successful HPB surgeon.

However, there is much more than that as you will hear during this interview. He is a BIG sports fan and lives under a dark cloud being a life-long Yankee fan in Boston. He even has a seat...

Neil Floch is so much more than a Yale Bariatric Surgeon working in Greenwich, CT. He is a passionate advocate for changing the way society views obesity, manages obesity and approaches obese patients.

Medicine and surgery is the family business but dealing in comic books and oil painting perhaps less so.

Neil is one of the stars of social media and has been since the very beginning. His comments on the strengths and weakness of co...

Julie Freischlag is one of the biggest names in surgery and her CV record of achievements is truly impressive. But there is so much more to her story than the extraordinary CV.

A vascular surgeon par excellence, Academic Chair, CEO and Dean and President of the American College of Surgeons would be remarkable enough but her journey through life is far more interesting than that. The real Stuff That Matters is what she describes ...

Pascal Fuchshuber is a Franco-German Yank - OK? Brought up in France with an Austrian name and trained in Germany he was dispatch by his boss to Texas for a Research Fellowship - and never went home again. Brief stints in Boston resulted in a career as a Surgical Oncologist in Kaiser for more than 20 years.

Now he is an enthusiastic acute care surgeon enjoying life near San Francisco where he enjoys playing with a small but inter...