In this Leveling Up episode of the PRS Global Open Deep Cuts Podcast, Dr. Ash Patel shares how emotional intelligence transforms surgery—improving patient care, teamwork, and decision-making—plus his approach to impactful academic research, balancing personal and professional goals, the power of diversity to drive innovation, surgical techniques including pectoralis and gracilis muscle flaps, career-shaping mentors, and an unexpected claim to fame outside the world of plastic surgery.

Read a recent PRS Global Open article by Dr. Patel and colleagues, “Navigating the Ethical Landmines of ChatGPT: Implications of Intelligent Chatbots in Plastic Surgery Clinical Practice”: https://bit.ly/ChatGPT_Ethics_In_PS  

Dr. Ash Patel is a Professor in the division of Plastic Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, and was previously the Chief and Residency Program Director of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Albany Medical College in New York. He completed medical school at the University of Dundee in Glasgow, followed by a general surgery residency at Tufts in Massachusetts, and a plastic surgery fellowship at Vanderbilt in Tennessee. He is a section editor for the journal “Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.” He is the chair of the ASPS Annual meeting in New Orleans in 2025.

Your host, Dr. Puru Nagarkar, is a board-certified plastic and hand surgeon, and Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

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