Cold Steel: Canadian Journal of Surgery Podcast

 Sometimes our own minds can be our worst enemies when trying to perform at the highest level. Instead of focusing on your next pass, the next note you have to play, or the bleeder you have to control, you instead spend your time thinking about how bad you are or how stressed you are. In this episode we spoke with Dr. Caitlin Champion and Tara Costello on mindfulness and mental awareness. Caitlin and Tara have developed a mindfulness course for surgeons called mSOAR (Mindfulness Superpower of Attention Regime) that is being offered through the Canadian Association of General Surgeons.  This was a really important conversation for surgeons on how we can train our minds to allow us to bring our fullest selves to our jobs and to our lives! Bio: Tara Costello (www.aheadinthegame.ca) is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Certified Mindfulness Facilitator and behaviour change specialist focused on strengthening habits for performance excellence and personal well-being. She has 30 years of experience working with athletes, coaches and professionals to help strengthen their mental performance for over 30 years. Dr Cait Champion is a rural General Surgeon based in Parry Sound, Ontario. She is committed to providing a broad scope of surgical care to support her patients in accessing care close to home. She holds an Honours degree in Environmental Science from Acadia University andreceived her MD from the University of Toronto, pursing post-graduate training in General Surgery at the University of Ottawa along with an MSc in Health Systems through the uOttawa Telfer School of Management during her surgical training. In addition to her clinical work, shepursues collaborative frostbite care research with the Canadian Frostbite Care Network and holds leadership roles in the Canadian Association of General Surgeons. She is also active in mentorship of future physicians and surgeons though her involvement in undergraduate andpostgraduate education at NOSM University where she is an Associate Professor, providing leadership in promoting rural surgery as a meaningful career path. Outside of surgery she enjoys lattes, knitting, and fun with her family. Links:www.aheadinthegame.caRural Surgeon Profile - Dr. Cait Champion - CAGSm.S.O.A.R : Mindfulness Mental Performance Attentional Training for Surgeons | General Surgery Learning & Resource CentreTribble C. The Mental Strategies of Surgeons: A Primer - Part I. Heart Surg Forum. 2020 Dec 31;23(6):E927-E936. doi: 10.1532/hsf.3593. PMID: 33399534.CSF CAGS CMPA Level Up Seminar:  CSF CAGS CMPA 2026_Level Up_Complete FINAL.pptx - Google Drive

How can we better prepare ourselves and our trainees for sitting the oral exam? By this point, residents have typically already passed their written exam. And so they have the book knowledge, but how do you get that book knowledge from inside your brain to your mouth and obvious obviously, onto your examiner and onto their page? To answer that question, I invited Dr. Sorena Afshar onto the podcast this week.Dr. Afshar is a colorectal surgeon in the UK and has a keen interest in communication and surgery. He's also the founder of Surgical Minds, which is a website where you can actually use an AI model to practice your oral exams. We have a fascinating discussion in this episode about language and the nature of learning a new language, what it means to be an immigrant, and how you see your non-native language. But then we really get into the idea of the oral exam, or the Viva.What is the point of the oral exam? How can we best prepare for it? And what are some of Dr. Afshar's tips and tricks for bringing the best of yourself to the oral exam? We also talk about his attempts to use AI to actually examine something quite difficult to tell a computer to understand. Links:https://surgicalminds.comSorena Afshar - The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine

Why is a surgical podcast talking about tax credits????We strongly believe that in order to be a more effective surgeon, we have to address all aspects of our lives. Unfortunately or fortunately, a big part of that is making sure our finances are well taken care of.Nikhil Patil is the CEO of Innovotis Consulting. He joined us on this episode to talk about Scientific, Research & Experimental Development (SR & ED) Credits. We talk about what SR&ED is, how physicians can make use of it, and more broadly, how physicians can support innovation in their practice.Links:Dr. Nikhil Patil:[email protected]://www.innovotis.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilpatilmd/Check out our previous episode with Mark Soth on "Designing a Good Life": https://open.spotify.com/episode/13sCyzbP7wAR3R4wwPrYIW?si=kjMveLBaSg-NmkqnNa8p6Q

AI is likely to change the way that medical and surgical education happens over the next decade. We needed to find out how, and Dr. Samir Grover joined us on this episode to talk about it. Dr. Samir Grover is a gastroenterologist, clinician-educator, and education researcher whose career has been defined by building the simulation and technology-enhanced learning infrastructure that trains the next generation of physicians, and by translating that work into national and international practice. He serves as Executive Vice-President, Academics at Scarborough Health Network (SHN), where he holds the hospital's inaugural Pialis Family Chair in Education.Samir and the Grover lab have really pivoted to study the impact of AI on medical education. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the implications of AI on medicine. Samir also talks to us about his current AI stack and how we might immediately start to use AI in our own practice.Links:Samir C. Grover | About | University of TorontoSamir Grover Substack:  Samir C. Grover, MD | SubstackAI empathy:  AI empathy is artificial. But could that possibly be better.AI stack for med students or residents:  The AI stack for the medical student or residentNeverskilling:  Neverskilling - Samir C. Grover, MDGrover Lab:  Grover Lab | Dr. Samir C. Grover | AI in Medical Education