Movin’ Out!

We are outta’ here!

….and moving to our new location on our website – www.mtuitive.com/blog/

There we’ll have our opinions about the latest from the world of surgery, pathology, evidence-based medicine, structured data, synoptic reporting, and a whole host of other issues. There will be more writers covering more areas of discussion. So please head on over to learn more about us (although it may take a few days for it to stop looking so wonky).

www.mtuitive.com/blog/

mTuitive’s New Website!

Self-Promotion Alert!

The Internet's Inner Workings...Revealed!
(click image to see it in motion)

mTuitive recently updated our website. Please check it out today – we’ve made some changes to the content, the layout and other aspects. Let us know what you think! You can either go to http://www.mtuitive.com/ or click on the button below!

(Thanks and regular/non-brand plugging posts will continue shortly)

Introducing the OpNote Consultants: Carl Brown, MD, MSc, FRCSC

While creating our surgical reporting product, the OpNote, we at mTuitive have been working with many highly skilled surgeons.  These surgeons are from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds and help to shape the future and efficacy of the OpNote.  We’re introducing these consultants to all of you in the coming weeks.

Dr. Carl Brown completed medical school at McMaster University in 1995 and his general surgery training at the University of Calgary in 2003.  He subsequently worked as a general surgeon at the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary.  In 2004, he moved to Toronto to train as a sub specialist in Colorectal Surgery. Concurrent with his fellowship, Dr. Brown completed his master’s degree in clinical research at the University of Toronto.   In 2006, he joined the surgical staff of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Dr. Brown is the chairman of the Research and Outcomes Evaluation Committee at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and an active member of the Colorectal Cancer Outcomes Unit. He is a member of the Surgical Oncology Network of British Columbia Executive. The goal of these groups is to improve the outcomes of patients with colorectal cancer through research initiatives.

Dr. Brown is the assistant program director of the general surgery residency program at the University of British Columbia. He coordinates the Surgery Leadership Program for general surgery trainees.  Over the past three years, Dr. Brown has published several studies on surgery for colorectal cancer, the ileal pouch procedure and surgery for Crohn’s disease. Furthermore, he has taught courses in laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery.

How did you get interested in medicine?

I was always interested in science but, more importantly, I like interacting with people and helping people.  While it may seem cliché, [medicine] has turned out to be everything I had hoped it would be.  I do get to help people every day.  There’s never a day that I go home after work without feeling satisfied that I’ve accomplished something.

Wow – that’s great.

Yeah, it’s really true.  You know, it sounds kind of clichéd and maybe even a little cheesy, but it is so true.

What attracted you to surgery?  What made you go with that specialty out of all the possible paths in medicine?

Firstly, I’m a fix-it kind of guy.  I like to fix things.  It’s always been something I’ve been fairly strong at – growing up in a small town, we always took it upon ourselves to fix things around the house.   A lot of what we do in medicine is tweaking things: giving a little medication to make someone feel a little bit better.  And that is very important.

But I like the “fix”.  I like the stress and the pressure of having someone who has a life threatening illness and taking on the incredible responsibility and trust of that person by operating on them.  Many times what I do cures the person of that problem.  It’s very gratifying – very immediate.  It’s sort of what I think medicine’s all about.

How did you first hear about mTuitive and the OpNote product?

I’m an academic surgeon at a major Canadian university.  My main research interest for over seven years now has been synoptic reporting and improving processes of care in surgery.  About 6 years ago I published an article in the journal Surgery about synoptic reporting and its benefits.  It’s always been an interest of mine.

Concurrently, as I’ve worked through my career, I’ve become more interested in cancer.  There’s a big push to have synoptic reporting in cancer surgery – much like there is excellent synoptic reporting in cancer pathology.  I feel strongly that [synoptic reporting in surgery] is a simple thing that we can add that can potentially improve patient care and save lives.

Through my work with the provincial organization in British Columbia I was introduced to the mTuitive products.  I saw it as a possible solution to a lot of our problems.

Introducing the OpNote Consultants: Dr. Roger N. Chabra

While creating our surgical reporting product, the OpNote, we at mTuitive have been working with many highly skilled surgeons.  These surgeons are from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds and help to shape the future and efficacy of the OpNote.  We’re introducing these consultants to all of you in the coming weeks.

Dr. Roger Nathan Chabra graduated in 1962 from Christian Medical College of Punjab University in India.  For his post-graduate surgical training, he went to the United Kingdom and became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1969.

In 1970, he emigrated to the United States and went through a complete surgical residency program at Boston University Medical Center.  He joined Cape Cod Hospital as Attending General Surgeon in 1974 where he worked until his retirement in 2000.

During his time at Cape Cod Hospital he was on the faculty of Boston University Medical School as Clinical Instructor in Surgery and was involved in training surgical residents and medical students rotating through the hospital, which is an affiliate of the Department of Surgery at Boston University Hospital.

How did you get interested in medicine?

Where I grew up, in India, there’s a lot of influence of the parents.   In a subtle way, they decide what their children are going to be.  So there was this slow…”brainwashing” may be too strong a term.

(Laughs)

But that was going on all the time.  It was almost difficult to escape that concept.  In a country like India, you do not want to disappoint your parents, or make them unhappy because you chose something different than what they wanted.

So the die was cast, as far as I was concerned.

Why did you decide to become a surgeon?

I had surgery at a very young age.  I was in this magnificent hospital and I saw the aura around the surgeon and the nurses.   The reverence and respect they received.

“My god,” I said, “I want to be like them one of these days.”

So that drove me into surgery.  My original field was going to be chest surgery, because I had thoracic surgery done on myself.  That didn’t pan out, so instead I became a general surgeon.