Leading The Way - From the Chair

Douglas B. Evans, MD

Thinking about Medicine and Surgery

“Leading the Way” has grown just as much as our department; the number of featured articles in this edition is a prime example. While the articles focus on different areas within surgery and medicine, they all have one thing in common – they reflect the extraordinary amount of time that our faculty, residents and fellows have their minds on some aspect of innovation and discovery. The outpouring of contributions to “Leading the Way” represents the tip of the department’s iceberg of academic productivity. Such academic achievement creates an atmosphere of always asking why – the most important part of how we practice medicine and work together. Questioning everything from clinical guidelines and pathways to all aspects of patient management and importantly, to department and institutional policies, means that we are thinking all the time.

Creating a culture which accepts, and expects, us to question the status quo will result in us writing the clinical guidelines and pathways, embracing the time and resources needed to succeed in research and academics, and developing a culture of open communication in an environment which can sometimes be stressful and uncomfortable. Pictured on the cover of this issue of “Leading the Way” are our incoming Chief Residents who will continue the tradition of questioning how and why we do things – ensuring that we treat the patients of tomorrow better than we are treating the patients of today. Thank you to all our faculty and residents who contributed to this amazing issue of “Leading the Way.”

(Left to right) Alexis Bowder MD, Paul Dryud MD, Erin Buchanan MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Alexis Bowder, MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Erin Buchanan, MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Paul Dyrud, MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Kyla Fredrickson, MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Ashley Krepline, MD

AY2022-2023 Chief Resident Nathan Smith, MD