Surgeons’ Lives - Stuff that Matters

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 Yanke...

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...

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 T...

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 en...

Professor Julio Mayol talks to us from his home town of Madrid, Spain about his journey through academic surgery, to administrative leader and innovator in the exploding world of Social Media and Surgery. He also reminds us how small a world surgery can be when we hear about his mentors Jeff Matthews and Julio Aguilar-Garcia - three musketeers for sure! For the record, Julio Mayol is Professor of...

Mark Coleman is a Colorectal Surgeon in the UK who is perhaps best known for spreading the word globally about Lapco - the UK model of teaching laparoscopic colorectal surgery that has been adopted in many countries and definitely broadened its horizons! Mark spent is early life in South Africa and from his earliest days was something of a car nut. He never abandoned that passion - his not so mode...

Eric Pauli is something of an odd-ball in several ways - he agrees BTW!! Surgical endoscopists are rare birds and he is certainly one of the most prominent in the field. Interventional techniques are his passion such as closing fistula defects and repairing leaks. Reconstructing abdominal wall defects is another favorite pastime and has resulted in an international reputation in the hernia world!...

Sonia Ramamoorthy is a current star of the world of colorectal surgery. soon to be President of ASCRS she has managed to balance professional excellence, administrative workload and Society leadership with the much more important work of successful family life - always a challenge but something of which she is rightly proud. Listen to her story of starting life in the North East, Fellowship in the...

Barry Salky is a special guy - innovator, surgeon, wine and food enthusiast as well as an award winning lecturer and one of the legends of advanced laparoscopy and MIS. Listen to and watch this latest episode of #surgeonslives and hear his story from the start in Tennessee, a career in Mount Sinai to the mountains of Colorado where he now spends much of his time # George Fielding and many others w...

This is a truly different story. Dr. Bobby Mukkamala shows us around his amazing car collection in Flint, Michigan where he has been in private ENT practice for 20+ years. A community activist, philanthropist and ENT surgeon, he is determined to rejuvenate his home town using his cars and his restaurants and love for the place he was born. As his collection creeps up towards 100 cars, there is sur...

For those of you who always wanted to do something adventurous this is a must watch. Fabio and Kristen Potenti sold their house, packed their bags and with one small dog started a new life aboard a large catamaran and sail the oceans. The interview was made when they were in the Panama Canal and about to start a Pacific crossing - yes, you read that right!! By the time this podcast goes live they...

Sports injury orthopedic surgeon Nick Colyvas takes us on a journey from his early life in a close Greek community in Southern Africa, to moving to the USA as a fresh faced teenager and then back to medical school in Johannesburg. San Francisco (and of course UCSF where is is a Professor of Surgery) has been his home for most of his career. Along the way, not only has he become a star in his profe...

This is the story from George Fielding, bariatric legend from Brisbane and more lately New York. He describes how it all started for him and his travels from Australia to, Scotland, England and Switzerland before establishing himself back in Australia as a pioneer of the Lap Band. Having inserted 1000's he then had one himself more than 2 decades ago. Just when life seemed all too good, a series o...

Robbie Madoff tells us how he went from school in Boston and Medical school in Harvard to residency in Minnesota - where is almost gave up surgery as uninteresting!  Thankfully, a gap year traveling got him back on tract and a stellar career of think and contributing in Minnesota and beyond.  10 years as Editor-in-Chief is discussed, as well as his current life in Brooklyn.  Family, cycling, opera...

Jeff Matthews is Chair of Surgery at U Chicago and right up there in Academic Surgery.  He is an advocate for DEI and determined to bring about change.  His Spotify profile(!!) says his main job is as a rock musician with compositions, albums and a collection of guitars to his name!!  Enjoy his story and views on life.

Say hello to this new podcast Surgeon's Lives - also available on YouTube @Surgeonslives.  We talk to surgeons about their professional career and journey as well as their life passions, hobbies and interests - Stuff That Matters!