Cold Steel: Canadian Journal of Surgery Podcast

Jessica Grossman is a digital marketer, actress and model. She also is a powerful advocate for patients with Crohns disease. She specifically has done so much to destigmatize what it’s like to live with a stoma, which is a surgically created opening that allows stool to exit the body into a bag. Her work with her website uncoverostomy.org has garnered widespread attention and is an incredible reso...

In this episode we interview Dr. Lawrence Gillman, a trauma surgeon at the University of Manitoba. We start off talking about the course that he and Dr. Sandy Widder developed, the Simulated Trauma and Resuscitation Team Training (STARTT course). We also get his thoughts on mentoring in point-of-care and trauma ultrasound. Finally, and most powerfully, Dr. Gillman shares his experience having to c...

Dr. Clay Cothren Burlew is a trauma surgeon in Denver, Colorado. She is world-renowned for her work on pelvic packing as well blunt cerebrovascular injuries, among many other things. We caught up with her to find out how she manages stay so productive, and specifically to talk to us about pelvic packing and blunt cerebrovascular injury.  Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClayBurlew?s=20 Links: 1. Treat...

Dr. Mark Soliman (https://twitter.com/MarkSoliman?s=20) is a colorectal surgeon at Advent Health in Orlando, Florida. We got to talk to Dr. Soliman about his passion for robotic colorectal surgery and where he sees robotics going in the future. We then did a deep dive on the use of video in surgery, from how to edit surgical videos to how Dr. Soliman incorporates video into resident education! Lin...

This episode we had a special guest, Dan Van Hooren. Dan is the head coach for the University of Calgary Dinos basketball team and is a legend in Canadian university basketball history (see bio below). We asked Dan to tell us about what goes into creating great teams - the parallels to surgery were striking! Links: 1. Georges Laraque book: https://www.amazon.ca/Georges-Laraque-Story-Unlikeliest-To...

Dr. Marcus Burnstein is a colorectal surgeon at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. In this episode, we ask him to break down his approach to patients presenting with anal pain, perianal abscess, and perianal fistula. We also hear about the famous "circle of love"! Check out the CAGS seminar on perianal disease on April 1 at 7 pm ET! Register here: https://cags-accg.member365.ca/public/eve...

Dr. Melissa “Red” Hoffman is one of only 80 dual-boarded trauma surgeons and palliative care physicians in the US. She joined us on this episode to talk about surgical palliative care and how surgeons can potentially do this better. We also ask her about her life journey informs the work that she does today, including her outstanding writing.  Links: 1. Dr. Melissa Red Hoffman: https://redhoffmanm...

It’s not uncommon for surgeons to think about taking a break at various points in their career, but for many of us, it might seem daunting to think about how to make that happen. Dr. Paul Duffy is an orthopedic surgeon, Clinical Assistant Professor and Division Chief of Orthopedia Trauma at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta. He recently gave a fantastic grand rounds for the Departme...

Dr. Vahagn Nikolian (https://twitter.com/VNikolian?s=20) has been thinking about the way we can adopt virtual care far before the COVID19 pandemic. Dr. Nikolian is a surgeon at Oregon Health & Science University and specializes in abdominal wall reconstruction. In this episode, we talk to him about how he got interested in telehealth, how we can streamline telehealth consults, and where he see...

It is astonishing how a pea-sized gland in one’s neck could be so troublesome. Dr. Jesse Pasternak is an endocrine surgeon at Toronto General Hospital. In this episode, we delve into the workup of hyperparathyroidism, Dr. Pasternak’s approach to parathyroid surgery, and his thoughts on the introduction of new surgical techniques.  Links: 1. Charles Martell (first successful parathyroidectomy): htt...

What do you do if you are a "struggling" trainee or trying to help a struggling trainee? We were lucky enough to have Dr. Ahmer Karimuddin join us on this episode to try to answer those questions. He might even change your mind on the way you think about the word "struggling". Dr. Karimuddin is a colorectal surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. Along with Dr. Tracy Scott,...

In this episode, we interview Shane DiNapoli, a chartered accountant based in Calgary, Alberta. We talk to him about some of the common mistakes he sees physicians make with their finances, physician corporations, and the advice that he has for physicians starting out in their practice.  Links: 1. https://shanedinapoli.com/

Have you ever stared at the garbage bags in the operating room and thought – that’s a lot of trash! Dr. Andrea MacNeill (https://twitter.com/Ecosurgeon?s=20) took that thought and decided to do something about it. Dr. MacNeill is a surgical oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital and is on a mission to improve planetary health, inside and outside the operating room. We ask her in this episode to...

Dr. Michael D’Angelica (https://twitter.com/MichaelDAngeli2?s=20)is a surgical oncologist and hepatobiliary surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. He is world-renowned for both his research and clinical expertise in the treatment of colorectal liver metastases. We got to pick his brain on his approach to colorectal liver mets, as well as some of his broader advice for prospective fello...

Dr. Andrew Ibrahim (https://twitter.com/AndrewMIbrahim) is a general surgeon at the University of Michigan and an architect at the firm HOK. In this episode, we talk about his path and how he combined his passion for surgery and architecture.  We get his thoughts on visual abstracts,  the concept of design, his vision for hospitals of the future and what architects might learn from surgeons. Links...

Our guest for this episode doesn’t believe in comfort zones. Dr. Vivian McAlister is a transplant surgeon, a professor of surgery in London, Ontario, and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Surgery. At the age of 52, Dr. McAlister decided to enlist with the Canadian Forces Health Services as a combat surgeon. For all his contributions to Canada as a surgeon and researcher, he was r...

We are absolutely delighted to have Karen Norris (@freckleface23 on twitter) join us on the podcast today. Karen Norris is the conference manager at the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and manages the Canadian Surgery Forum, the largest annual meeting for Canadian general surgeons. In this episode we talk about what the future holds for conferences in a COVID world, including how organiza...

It’s our pleasure to start off the new year with an episode on social media and surgery! In this episode, we were joined by Dr. Sean Langenfeld (https://twitter.com/seanlangenfeld). Dr. Langenfeld is a colorectal surgeon at the University of Nebraska and has spent a long time doing research and thinking about social media and surgery. We talk about the concept of “professionalism” on social media,...

In this episode, we were lucky enough to have Dr. Nicholas Zyromski (https://twitter.com/nzyromski) give us a masterclass on pancreatitis. We go over classification and then go through a host of controversial topics: endoscopic management, percutaneous drainage, antibiotics, nutrition, and surgical management. Don't forget to check out Dr. Zyromski's music, including "P-Blues"! Links: 1. Nicholas...

In this episode, we discuss the Danish mask study. We discuss the paper itself and the results.  More importantly, we discuss the challenges of science communication and science literacy for physicians and the general public.  We were joined once again by Drs. Kelly Vogt (https://twitter.com/kellynvogt) and Morad Hameed (https://twitter.com/moradhameed). Email us at podcast.cjs@gmail.com with your...

In this episode, we were joined by surgical oncologist Dr. Carolyn Nessim (www.twitter.com/carolynnessim). Dr. Nessim works at the Ottawa General Hospital and gave us a masterclass on melanoma. We talk about an initial approach to melanoma, staging, immunotherapy, and a walk-through of how Dr. Nessim does her groin dissections. Links 1. http://carolynnessim.com/ 2. The eighth edition American Join...

Dr.  Ryan Martin is an orthopedic surgeon at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta. We talked to him about what it was like to be a sports doctor for the Calgary stampeders, and the preparation he does for going into the operating room. Dr. Martin received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa. He later went on to complete his Orthopedic surgical residency at the Cumming Scho...

In this episode, Dr. Kelly Vogt (https://twitter.com/kellynvogt) and Dr. Rebecca Auer(https://twitter.com/auer_r) join us to talk about the documentary film "RBG". What can we as surgeons learn about from the work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg?  Links:  -RBG documentary: https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80240086

This is a special episode of Cold Steel done in collaboration with the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS: www.twitter.com/CAGS_ACCG). In lieu of the annual Canadian Surgical Forum (CSF), CAGS put on a series of fantastic webinars over the week of Nov 26 - 30. These were highly impactful and relevant webinars. Topics included:  -The COVID-19 Elective Surgery Crisis and New Models of Su...

In this episode we were honoured to once again have another icon of trauma surgery join us. Dr. Ernest E. Gene Moore is a trauma surgeon at the Denver General Hospital. In this episode we explore Dr. Moore’s early insights into the developments of acute care surgery as a specialty, how he defined not one but two major surgery journals, and how he continues to think about the evolution of surgery m...