Prof. Colin Schieman: link to the novel technology and technique is important

Founded in July, 2016, the Asia Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ASTS) recently gathered numerous experts from different international thoracic associations, like American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS), Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons (EACTS), International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS), Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons (CATS), etc., together to have an active and aspiring discussion and sharing about the better development of ASTS. During this time, the Editorial Office of AME Medical Journal (AMJ) seized the opportunity to have an interview with Prof. Colin Schieman, representative of the CATS (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Picture with Prof. Schieman.

As the pre-Education Chair of the CATS, Prof. Schieman shared with us some main responsibility of this position (to keep the surgeons stay abraced with the newest technology and acts as an important link), which is important for the ASTS to learn from for the training program.

Many aspects of developing ASTS have been discussed. Concerning the challenges ASTS faced in the future, Prof. Schieman thought all were manageable only take time. Prof. Schieman also agreed on the idea about organizing an official journal for the society but mentioned this should be the natural step but not the first step until the society is well established.

Based on the experience of CATS and his own experience in surgical education, Prof. Schieman also briefly introduced the efficient ways of communication in CATS (newsletter, journal and website) and two important components in the current surgical education (an access to the novel and newest technology and technique, and education standard). Moreover, Prof. Schieman as well gave some advices to young generation fighting to be a surgeon--keep relevant, stay innovative, select the best training and looking forward!

At the end of the interview, given his own experience, Prof. Schieman shared with us this way of balancing the heavy clinical and academic workload as well as his personal life.

For more details, why not click the following video (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Interview with Prof. Schieman (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1226

Interview questions:

• We know that you had been the Education Chair of CATS (Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons), here would you like to share with us the main responsibility of this position? What education or training program is organized by the CATS to improve the surgeons’ skill?
• Today’s discussion talked much about the challenges ASTS faced, like the language and whether it should have an official journal. Here would you like to tell us your idea or advice on this?
• There are many departments in one organization or society. In your opinion, which way of communication among departments will save the time and achieve the best effect? Is there a principle or standard for the communication among departments in one society?
• We know that one of your academic interests is surgical education. Then with the fast development in the thoracic field, what do you think should be the focus of surgical education?
• What would be your advice to our young generation fighting to be a surgeon?
• You are also member of many other organizations and also have the clinical work. Then would you like to tell us how do you balance the academic work, clinical responsibility and personal life?

Expert introduction:

Colin Schieman, MD, BSc, FRCSC

Associate Professor, Thoracic Surgery, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Chair of Program Committee and Chair of Continuing Professional Development of Education of Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons.

Prof. Schieman graduated Medical School at the University of Calgary. He then continued at the University of Calgary completing his residency in General Surgery, and subsequently an additional two-year residency in Thoracic Surgery. Prof. Schieman then spent an additional year of fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota where he gained further exposure to advanced oncologic resections and minimally invasive thoracic surgical techniques.

Prof. Schieman’s clinical work involves all areas of thoracic surgery, but his current areas of special interest involve minimally invasive surgery for the lung and esophagus. His academic interests involve surgical education and clinical research involving perioperative complications and outcomes. He is the Program Director of the Royal College Residency Training Program in Thoracic Surgery at McMaster University. He also serves at the Chair of Professional Development for the Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons.

Prof. Schieman is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at McMaster University, and holds an adjunct clinical appointment with the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.

Acknowledgements

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and peer review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, AME Medical Journal for the series “Meet the Professor”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: the author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037amj.2016.11.02). The series “Meet the professor” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Skylar Gao reports that she is a full-time employee of AME publishing company (publisher of the journal). The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Gao S. Interview with Prof. Schieman. Asvide 2016;3:452. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1226

(Science Editor: Skylar Gao, AMJ, amj@amegroups.com)