Scott MacDiarmid, MD is a private practice urologist in Greensboro, North Carolina and the author of “Fist Pumps” – a self-help book to lift up physicians and healthcare providers who serve (https://www.amazon.com/Fist-Pumps-Scott-MacDiarmid/dp/1088078184).  Similar to my journey in Operative with Zen, Scott wrote the book thinking, “If I can help one other person.”  We talk about the stresses of being a physician and surgeon in modern American healthcare and strategies to deal with that...

Paul Maroni, MD is a urologic oncologist at the University of Colorado in Denver.  He is a repeat guest on OWZ (#41. Joy in the Service of Others… https://www.buzzsprout.com/1811662/10549621) and a good friend.  We share an interest in the physical health of our patients and ourselves as physicians and surgeons.  This conversation focuses on practical strategies (and the science behind them) to optimize physical health and well-being through movement, exercise, and nutrition.  There is no...

Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH is the Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Surgical Oncologist.  She is the President and Co-founder of the Academy for Surgical Coaching (https://surgicalcoaching.org/) and is responsible for most of the academic literature regarding surgical coaching and outcomes directly or inspirationally.  We talk through the basics of surgical coaching from the operating room to the clinic, executive coaching through...

Ms. Nadine Coull, MBBS, MS, FRCS (Urol) is the Deputy Medical Director of the National Health Services (NHS) and President of the Urology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.  In addition, she is the Deputy Medical Director of Kingston Hospital.  Nadine never envisioned herself as a leader of a hospital, hospital system, or the NHS – but through deep beliefs in compassion and kindness found herself rising through the leadership ranks first locally then nationally.    She is a strong...

“All healthcare is delivered through relationships.”  This is the key statement from this episode of OWZ and highlights that effective communication is a key component of delivering excellent patient care.  Marissa Theofanides, MD is a urologist at Montefiore in the Bronx and expert in communication skills.  She is certified by the Academy of Communication in Healthcare (https://achonline.org/) whose motto is “Better Communication. Better Relationships. Better Care.”  In this podcast, we help...

Dr. Mick Malotte, MD is a retired ENT surgeon from California who has been practicing mindfulness as a surgeon for over 30 years.  Not only does Mick practice mindfulness through a daily practice and retreats, but he teaches mindfulness to physicians and surgeons around the country!  Mick gives us a brief history of mindfulness in medicine and helps us understand how mindfulness practices are adopted to medicine and surgery.  We talk about burnout, data and physiology, and the religious and...

Dr. Angela Smith is a frequent flyer on the Operate with Zen podcast.  She is guru to me and many others for life hacks and practical, personal improvements to be more efficient and to have more ease and enjoyment in our daily routine.  In this podcast, we discuss “A Day of Reflection” – what exactly that means, how to set one up, and how to make it successful.  A day of reflection creates the opportunity to be present for oneself, to assess prior performance (in a non-judgmental way), and to...

Dr. Kelly Casperson, MD is a surgical rockstar!!!  … a urologist and sexual medicine expert, a extremely successful podcaster, author and now Ted-Talker!  Kelly hosts the “You Are Not Broken” podcast (https://www.kellycaspersonmd.com/podcast) which empowers women (“and the partners who love them”) with science and conversations to break down sexuality improve the intimate lives of the tens of thousands who listen each month!  But we are not talking about sexuality in today’s podcast… not...

Being a cancer surgeon can be tough.  Being a cancer patient even tougher.  Brian Lane, MD is facing both daily.  He is an accomplished surgeon and academic urologic oncologist.  In this thoughtful and honest discussion, we cover facing tough diagnoses as a patient and a surgeon; developing perspective as a patient to help our patients; finding purpose and meaning despite tough circumstances; and ultimately finding peace in faith and community.  This conversation is inspirational and...

Kevin Turner, MA, DM, FRCS (Urology) is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.  In 2015, he helped to start the Surgeon Wellbeing Research Team with colleagues from the Department of Psychology at Bournemouth University.  Kevin and team ran a UK national survey from 2016-2019 – data from which has helped us understand how complications affect surgeons, the pervasiveness of this issue, and helped to create important objective measures and definitions in the field – like...

Andrew Gabrielson, MD (@urogabe) is currently a resident at the Brady Urological Institute and Department of Urology at Johns Hopkins.  He is a budding pediatric urologist and developed an interest in surgical ergonomics and physical well-being before he started residency.  He is an integral member of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics and well-published in the field despite his young age!  He gives us lots of practical knowledge for the operating room (how to stand, how to set up your room,...

Jeff Bloovman, BSN, RN, is an operating room nurse with really unique interests and perspectives on life.  He has been an actor and director, is currently a firearms and combat instructor as well as an avid practitioner and instructor of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  Like many of us, Jeff is also challenged by an extremely active mind.  What do all of these experiences have in common?  They are all enhanced through mindfulness practices.  Whether focusing on a gun, your combatant, a theatre scene, or...

Physical ailments are a part of life, and all surgeons will encounter physical pain or injury in their career.  Good friends and fellow surgeons, Angela Smith, MD, and Jay Shah, MD, (and repeat guests on the show) are no strangers to injuries.  In this podcast we discuss chronic and acute physical injuries from diagnosis through long-term changes to our surgical and work-out routines.  Coping mechanisms, management of pain in the operating room, adjustments to workouts, and evolution of...

Dr. Joan Naidorf, DO (https://www.drjoannaidorf.com/) is an Emergency Room physician who, through clinical experience, developed expertise in managing the difficult patient.  She is the author of “Changing How We Think About Difficult Patients: A Guide for Physicians And Healthcare Professionals” (https://a.co/d/fWLWY5W) and was featured in a Washington Post article on the topic (Some doctors don’t like some patients - The Washington Post).  While not being explicitly “mindful,” her approach...

Jeremy Grummet, MBBS, Master of Surgery, FRACS is a urologist in Melbourne, Australia and a world leader in prostate cancer imaging and diagnostics.  He is also a deep thinker and deeply interested in the wellbeing of surgeons and his colleagues.  Our conversation meanders through personal struggle, burnout or "spin" as Dr. Grummet calls it, mental illness, and emotional challenges associated with life and surgery.  Core concepts of modeling vulnerability, the dichotomy between being a...

Dr. Carter Lebares, MD is a Gastrointestinal Surgeon at the University of California San Francisco and the Director of the UCSF Center for Mindfulness in Surgery.  In addition to being a thoughtful and skilled surgeon, she ran two randomized trials incorporating mindfulness based practices into surgery.   She developed ESRT or Enhanced Stress Resilience Training from principles of John Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to specifically apply to surgeons and surgical...

Bradley Block, MD is an otolaryngologist in New York and founder of the “Physician’s Guide to Doctoring” podcast.  The founding principle of the Physician’s Guide is “all the stuff we should have learned in medical school but didn’t.”  While we only have an hour, we cover a lot of it!  We talk personal and professional development, social engineering and how it impacts patient and personal interactions, and vulnerabilities as a busy surgeon in a busy practice.  We settle on intention and...

Dharam Kaushik, MD is a urologic oncologist who does big time cancer surgeries.  He is also a researcher and educator at the University of Texas San Antonio where he runs the urologic oncology fellowship program and leads the kidney cancer research program.  Despite an upbringing in India and early exposure, he only recently picked up yoga as an outlet for wellness in his life.  We explore yoga and mindfulness as strategies to combat burnout and stress at work, but expand the discussion to...

5 minute breathwork exercise.

Michelle Quirk, MD is a pediatrician and pediatric hospitalist in the Philadelphia area.  She is also a certified run coach and started Mindful Marathon (mindful-marathon.com) to help busy professionals develop well-being through running and fitness.  Importantly, Michelle was not always a runner, but over the years learned how to engage with her own personal wellness through running and fitness.  That engagement led to the Mindful Marathon passion project – by which trains doctors and other...

Dr. Elizabeth "Betsy" Koehne, MD is at the wonderful transition between training and complete surgical independence.  She is a urologist and Acting Instructor and Society of Urologic Oncology fellow at the UW School of Medicine in Seattle.  While she is may be junior is her surgical experience, she is seasoned in transcendental meditation, yoga, and incorporating mindfulness into her daily and surgical existence.  I learn a ton from Betsy every time we speak and I hope you enjoy this...

Dr. Bradley Erickson is a Professor of Urology, a reconstructive urologist, and Director of Functional Urology at the University of Iowa.  We are great friends and bonded over similar loves of baseball and skiing – sharing quite a few lift rides and challenging mountain runs in Colorado.  Brad is also an extremely accomplished academic surgeon from very early on in his career – in fact, that’s what brought us together.  I say this all because i had no idea, about 2-3 years into his practice,...

Diana Londoño, MD is a urologist in Los Angeles with a specific interest in coaching surgeons through tough times.  She is the founder of Physician Coach Support (https://physiciancoachsupport.com/), a free peer-to-peer service for surgeon personal development.  She is a mom, a yogi, and so much more!  We discuss how Buddhist principles guide coaching, how being both a healer and a teacher are important to our roles as surgeons, and gives practical tips on how to organize a surgical life for...

Kristin Chrouser, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Urology at the University of Michigan and Section Chief of Urology at the VA in Ann Arbor Michigan. She is an expert in intraoperative stress - something all surgeons are familiar with - and tackles it through a variety of academic avenues.  We discuss physical stress through ergonomics and pain both in and out of the OR.  We talk about the OR environment and mindsets that are conducive to a healthy and long surgical career.  And we talk...