This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics: https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal

Disclosure:

Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount, so we hope that it is a win-win!

Paul W.M. Fedak, MD PhD, FRCS(C) is a cardiac surgeon and Director of the Libin Cardiovascular institute at the University of Calgary. He is also a scientist and physician-writer who leads at the forefront of medical innovation and academic medicine. His work explores the intersection of excellence, identity, and healing — especially the silent cost of high achievement in healthcare. Through his leadership, writing, and speaking, Paul invites a new conversation about moral injury, burnout, and the path from performance to presence, helping to reconnect medicine with its deeper purpose.

In this episode Dr. Fedak

- Shares how he started experiencing pain during the course of doing his job, ultimately leading to irreversible injury while operating

- Discusses how the culture of surgery (not showing weakness, accepting symptoms as a part of the job, lack of back up and redundancy in our medical systems) often prevents surgeons and other proceduralists getting the help they needed when they first start experiencing symptoms

- Acknowledges that fear of losing their livelihood and stigma attached to having physical limitations are huge barriers to surgeons reporting their symptoms

- Shares how the gap between his expectations regarding the results of his surgery and how his recovery actually went led to a mental spiral, clinical depression, shame and a loss of identity

- Explains how he found a new purpose and meaning in his suffering via writing and sharing his story

- Reminds us that we can take steps to reduce our risk of injury, but that workspaces within our institutions and instrument design also need to improve

You can reach Dr. Fedak via LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-w-m-fedak-md-b833b417a/?originalSubdomain=ca

You can learn about the Society of Surgical Ergonomics here: https://www.societyofsurgicalergonomics.org/

You can learn about work-related MSK injuries among cardiothoracic surgeons in this article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37659461/

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Sarah Temkin, MD is a first-time filmmaker, director and producer. She was trained as a gynecologic oncologist and spent over 2 decades providing surgical and medical care for women with cancer of the female genital tract. She held leadership positions in academic medicine, served on multiple national committees and is widely published in the medical literature. She has contributed throughout her career to conversations about equity in healthcare, including gender equity within the physician workforce. She was inspired to make the award-winning short documentary film 1001cuts, informed by her lived experience, after leaving clinical practice in 2020.

In this episode, Dr. Temkin

- Shares her reasons for leaving clinical medicine and making the film 1000cuts

- Explains how working with instruments that weren't designed for them became apparent as one of the many "cuts" women surgeons face during the course of their careers

- Emphasizes that having diversity of people, thought and practice in the OR makes things better for everyone, including our patients

- Discusses how a lot of progress has been made regarding making intrumentation in the OR more inclusive but that we still have work to do

You can reach Dr. Temkin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-temkin-214a76309/

Learn more about Dr. Temkin's film : https://www.1001cuts.org/

Watch the trailer for the film 1001cuts: https://www.videoproject.org/1001-cuts.html or alternatively you could just share the film website which has links to accessing the film through the film.

Webinar on stapler issues: https://www.societyofsurgicalergonomics.org/ and scroll down to the section Surgical Stapler Design and Usability

Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and please reach out to us if you have any suggestions regarding episode ideas and guests or if you'd like to be a guest on the show

Dr. Josh Mezrich is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin and holds the Mark A. Fischer Chair in Transplantation. His surgical interests include liver transplantation, kidney transplantation and laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. He is the surgical director of the living donor kidney program. He runs a translational science lab investigating the role of the microbiome and serum biomarkers on organ quality in brain dead donors. He is the inventor and co-founder of the MezLight (www.mezlight.com), a sterile surgical task light designed to provide high-definition illumination of surgical fields and ease the physical burden on surgeons.

Josh’s first book, When Death Becomes Life, was published by HarperCollins on January 15, 2019, and has sold in 12 countries outside the United States. His second book, Every Living Creature: How Xenotransplantation Will Change Our Lives, will be published in spring of 2026.

In this episode, Dr. Mezrich

- Discusses the issues with current lighting options in the OR and how they prompted his interest in inventing a new one

- Provides us with a list of attributes the wanted the new light to have, including not needing to be placed on the surgeon's head

- Describes his journey from the initial prototype of Mezlight to the currently available model

- Explains the challenges and opportunities faced by clinicians on an entrepreneurial journey

- Elaborates on his best practices for improved ergonomics in the OR including emphasizing the importance of microbreaks

Dr. Mezrich can be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-mezrich-555498190/

Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and please reach out to us if you have any suggestions regarding episode ideas and guests or if you'd like to be a guest on the show