Introducing the OpNote Consultants – Dr. Seth Goldberg

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.

After 27 years as an otolaryngologist/facial plastic surgeon in Rockville, MD, Dr. Seth Goldberg launched a new career as a health care consultant specializing in clinical information technology development, utilization management, continuous quality improvement, and risk management. He conducts accreditation surveys of outpatient medical facilities for the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. Dr. Goldberg holds board certifications in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, and Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

He earned his B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and his M.D. degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. He recently received his Masters of Medical Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Consumers Checkbook have included him in their list of Top Doctors.

In conjunction with his solo clinical practice, Dr. Goldberg was Chief of Otolaryngology at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD, and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD. He also served as a member of the Peer Review Committee of the Montgomery County Medical Society and as a peer review consultant with the Delmarva Foundation, Medical Mutual Liability Society of Maryland and the Medical Chirurgical Society of Maryland.

How did you get your interest in medicine?

I’m at the leading edge of the baby boom generation and my role model was – and we can joke about this – it was the TV show “Marcus Welby, MD.” He was a very respected individual and it was clear, back in the sixties, that physicians were highly respected members of and contributors to the well-being of  society.  So I think that’s what originally piqued my interest.

There were other factors, of course – I excelled at science and math.  I had an inquiring, experimental mind – I worked as a lab assistant for one of my biology teachers in addition to taking Advanced Biology as an elective in high school.  I taught tomato plants to say, “feed me, Seth.”

(Laughs)

Once I got into college, I fast tracked into medicine – that seemed to be the thing to get into at the time.  So I did my pre-med and the process for getting into medical school was actually pretty easy.  I had an interview at Tufts that consisted of the interviewer informing me that they had already decided to admit me.

(Laughs) So then you clearly felt like “I nailed it!”

(Laughs) Basically, yeah – I felt like I had nailed it, right.  Also, at the time, there was this other little thing called the Vietnam War.  I had a high lottery number, or I guess it was actually a low lottery number.  So there was only one other choice and that was be cannon fodder.