Academic Surgeon — Every Surgeon Should Aspire To Be!

Abstract

An academic surgeon is one who is extensively involved in clinical, academic and research work in surgical specialities. Of late, a fourth demand is being put on him/her, and that of administration, but not much data is available on this. The academic surgeon is expected to identify new opportunities for improving patient care and develop newer modalities of cure while critically evaluating treatment outcome and innovating and improving techniques with time. He/she is constantly doing the balancing act while riding two fast moving comets of surgical knowledge and surgical technology, and as if that was not enough, he/she is also responsible for mentoring the next generation of surgeons and scientists and assists them in their research. By evaluating and changing teaching programmes with time and designing skill labs and digital learning and teaching tools, the academic surgeon has to be a true team leader. His prudence and judgement at the time of crisis can make or break history and do wonders to the team or shatter the team spirit. Building vertical relationships with mentors and mentees and horizontal relationships with peers across other specialities, the academic surgeon is expected to encourage multidisciplinary collaboration to raise the intellectual quotient of the collaborators, and the resultant quality of the research, which is then validated by publications in journals with a high impact factor. An academic surgeon has the unique ability of surrounding himself/herself with a circle of genius!