The Teaching Years (continued)

The Teaching Years (continued)

What I enjoyed most about the years I spent in the academic environment was not only the interaction with medical students and residents, but the opportunity that was accorded me by Dr Benson to expand my knowledge and to do basic research and develop technology. I had at my disposal a lab that I had crammed with all sorts of surgical and technical equipment as well as a trove of “junk” that I could use to satisfy my imagination about what needed to be developed or improved.
Historically, tools are objects that man has adapted to perform specific tasks, I took this a step further by studying whether there were surgical instruments or procedures I could improve on their function. One of the things I tried to stress to my students was that if you understood how an instrument functioned, this knowledge could improve your surgical technique. An example of this was: why did a particular clamp have a curve or teeth in a certain pattern or why is a surgeon’s knot more secure and ideal for large vessels or the ergonomics of how scissor cut? When I showed them that speed in surgery was something that could be attained by eliminating purposeless movements, they could later see themselves developing into better surgeons.
One of the things most stressful in teaching surgery can be likened to teaching ones child to drive; except you’re dealing with trying to teach how to operate on a human being. At times it would be so much easier and quicker to do the surgery yourself but the student has to learn and the good teacher has to have the patience and temperament to endure the learning curve or one misstep could be catastrophic; not only to the patient but to the budding surgeon’s confidence. One of my better residents loss a patient and switched to a non-clinical program being unable to cope with the reality that death is always a part of medical care.
I had the philosophy that the earlier in ones career you are allowed to operate with the proper instructions, the more competent you would be later in your training. I am sure that most of the residents I trained would agree with this. It must also be said that some physicians do not have that special something that it takes to be a surgeon and it’s better to find this out early in ones training.
During these years, there were so many things happening in the field of Gynecology like new concepts of disease and the research and development of treatments were exciting and of enormous interest to me. I was extremely fortunate to have been totally supported by my director and also have the resources of the hospital’s research lab at my disposal.
My interest spanned a whole litany of subjects that I felt needed to be investigated or developed and I would sometimes awake at night and an idea would pop in my mind which I would jot it down and go into my lab to work out the merits.
Some of the many projects I worked on were either in conjunction with other
investigators or of my own interest. The list includes endometriosis, adhesions, tubal obstructive disease, sterilization methods, colposcopy, hysteroscopy, chorionic villous sampling , in-vitro-fertilization, Human porphyrin derivative use, use of Laser in gynecology, Electro surgery, hydro dissection and the use of fibrin glue. The list also includes development of better laparoscopic scissors, surgical staples and suturing techniques that were adaptable to using a cannula.
Some of the very first procedures done in Indiana like GIFT (gamete intrafallopian tube transfer) and laser ablation of the endometrium through the hysteroscope were done at Methodist Hospital under my tuteledge.
One of the things I foresaw was the ability to operate remotely with a video camera and a robotic device, this is now a reality in the “Da Vinci Operating System” being used today to perform a myriad surgical procedures.
My interest was not to just expand knowledge in gynecology but to stimulate other investigators to see the possible integration of techniques and instruments their specialties.
Though recognition of my contributions are buried in the details, I know that there is a light I lit among some of my students to question the status quo and expand it by their curiosity.
The teaching years lost it’s luster when the residency program started in a new direction. In the next chapter how a merger with IUSM became a reality and ended what I feel was one of the best OB/GYN programs in the country.