Session 36 Dr. Scott Steele is an academic Colorectal Surgeon and Chairman of the Colorectal Surgery Department at Cleveland Clinic. We discuss his love of the specialty. He has now been practicing outside of his fellowship for twelve years now. Dr. Steele also hosts his own podcast called Behind the Knife. Check it out as well as a host of all our other podcasts on the MedEd Media Network. [01:17] His Interest in Colorectal Surgery Scott knew he wanted to do surgery from the first time he got his clinical years and did some primary care. He also considered orthopedics since he likes sports. But colorectal surgery dawned on him when he met some mentors. Not being a sexy topic, he didn't really give it much time. But he found a mentor when he was in residency. Towards the end of his second year, going into his third year and on his fourth year, he began thinking about colorectal surgery. He hung around them and went to the meeting which he found an incredible experience. He thought they did both great in surgery and academics. They take care of patients that have diseases that he likes. They do some outpatient and inpatient surgeries, colonoscopies, and major oncological reconstructions. So it was something he was interested in. He initially thought about doing heart surgery but he thought he wanted a little bit more of variety. He knew he didn't want to do orthopedics in medical school after he did one rotation at the University of Wisconsin. Although he likes orthopedics and how it's related with sports, it just didn't trigger him. "I was more in the process of easily ruling things out." So Scott did this process of ruling things out. Surgical oncology is okay but colorectal did great cancer operations as well. Surgical oncology tend to not do the wide breadth of people. They tend to serve old people, a lot of them are dying in a lot of cases. It was something he didn't want to do. Minimally invasive surgery was a burgeoning fellowship at that time and it was its own fellowship. But he thought colorectal also does minimally invasive surgery. In fact, now minimally invasive surgery is a standard component of any particular field. So it's not in and of itself. So he made the jump from heart surgery to colorectal surgery. Scott was a general surgeon. He was in the military and he spent a year after his residency at Fort Hood, Texas where he practiced general surgery. So he basically did the vast bread and butter of general surgery. But growing up in a small town in northern Wisconsin that had amazing surgeons. And as a general surgeon, he didn't want to get pigeon-holed in being the hernia guy or the bowel obstruction guy or the lap chole person. He knew he wanted to do academics. He knew he wanted to do a subspecialty. So the more and more he went into colorectal surgery, the more he realized it fit his personality. It fit all the things he was looking for in a career. "The more I went into colorectal surgery, the more I realized it fit my personality. It fit all the things I was looking for in a career." [06:03] Traits that Lead to Becoming a Good Colorectal Surgeon Scott says that it's more on how we are as people. But what he found with colorectal surgeons is that they don't take themselves so seriously in broad, sweeping strokes. They have a ton of fun. They are generally good people. But they also have a side where they're really busy clinical surgeons in the community and academic centers. And for those that did academics, it was great medicine. There was basic science research and others did hard core epidemiological research. He adds that when you walk into a clinic and pick up a chart or log on the EMR and see what they're doing, patients have a special part of their body. They may not even tell their spouses of many years about what's going on with them. It tends to be something that's very intimate and very personal. It bleeds or itches. They feel something and that patient in many cases think they have cancer or the