The Indigenous Trainee paving the way to Cardiothoracic surgery

The Indigenous Trainee paving the way in Cardiothoracic surgery

Dr Robert Grant is a Trainee Cardiothoracic surgeon at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, New South Wales. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Sydney and holds a Master of Epidemiology from the prestigious Columbia University in New York. Dr Grant, who is of Gamillaroi descent, received a SET Trainee One Year Scholarship from Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in 2020. The initiative aims to increase the participation of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori doctors in a surgical career. “The scholarship was pretty useful and got me through one of six years of my training,” he said.

As a Trainee surgeon in a busy specialty, Dr Grant performs several interesting tasks. “Most of our patients are in ICU for the first couple of days after their operation. A typical day involves a variety of different operations from bypass operations to valve replacements from a cardiac point of view, lobectomies for lung cancer, and pacemakers and devices in terms of operating.” Dr Grant also works closely with intensive care doctors, respiratory physicians, and cardiologists. What drew Dr Grant to Cardiothoracic Surgery is the opportunity to perform intricate surgery. “Cardiothoracic Surgery is a specialty that's got a huge amount of variety; it's also intricate and interesting surgery. The aim is to restore function of the body rather than resect a tumour or a cancer. For example, doing a valve replacement or a bypass operation, you're trying to restore the function to give people a much better quality of life.” Dr Grant’s enjoys performing off pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery—a challenging surgery that involves operating without a bypass machine and while the heart is still beating. In 2013, Dr Grant completed a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from Columbia University in New York. He chose to undertake this study to help him with research and to understand the subject better.

During Sydney’s COVID-19 wave in 2021 Dr Grant worked closely with COVID-19 patients. “We were heavily involved with the ICU COVID patients in the use of ECMO to artificially do the job of their lungs for them,” he said. One of Dr Grant’s passions is to work in Indigenous health. He has been a member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) since 2009. After completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred, he looked to rural areas to get experience. “I worked in emergency for a couple of years in rural areas like Dubbo and Bowral in New South Wales. I would like to work in a regional area in the future. However, Cardiothoracic Surgery is restricted in that regard.” With only three years until his training ends, Dr Grant, who went to the University of Sydney, is a part of a small cohort of Indigenous surgeons in his speciality. “There is a sense of pride that I’ll be able to pave the way forward for other Indigenous people,” he said.

The challenge of going through medicine is made more uncomfortable by discrimination in the workplace. “There are still people that treat you as if you’re only there because you’re Indigenous. Getting a ‘free ride’ couldn’t be further from the case,” he said. In Australia there are more than 83,000 doctors registered and only 400 are Indigenous. Yet, 760,000 people in Australia identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

In a month, Dr Grant will be moving to Newcastle with his young family to commence the next part of his training, something he says he is excited about. “I’m also excited to live near the beach and get back into surfing,” he said. Dr Grant, who enjoys spending his free time in the outdoors, is also a new father to his five-month-old daughter.

RACS Research Scholarships and Grants round opens for applications in March 2022. For more information please go to www.surgeons. org/scholarships or contact the Scholarship and Grant Coordinator at scholarships@ surgeons.org For more information on setting up a scholarship, Fellowship or grant of your own, please contact the Foundation for Surgery at foundation@surgeons.org or +61 3 9249 1110.