Tips for Building a Practice in Early Career

Filmed at the 2019 STS Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, Mara Antonoff of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA, moderates a discussion on the tips for building a practice in early career. Dr Antonoff is joined by Damien LaPar of Columbia University in New York, USA, and David Odell of Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The panel discusses the importance of seeking mentorship, building relationships with referring physicians, and prioritizing good communication with patients and families. For academic surgeons, the panelists offer their suggestions for pursuing research goals while building one’s practice, noting that synergy between clinical and research goals can be helpful but that excellent opportunities might present themselves in unanticipated ways. In closing, the group emphasizes diverse ways that surgeons can continue their education through their early career, and they highlight resources that are available to early career surgeons for putting these tips into practice.