E45 Undergraduate Surgical Education With Andreana Butter And Geoffrey Blair

In this episode, we explore the many challenges facing an under-discussed topic: undergraduate surgical education. We were joined by Drs. Andreana Butter and Geoffrey Blair, current and former chairs of the Canadian Undergraduate Surgical Education Committee (CUSEC). 

Dr. Andreana Bütter completed medical school at the University of Ottawa and residency in General Surgery at Western University. During residency, she also pursued a year of research at the Montreal Children’s Hospital in pediatric surgery; specifically in the area of fetal surgery and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. This research culminated in her obtaining a Master of Science Degree from McGill University in 2001. Upon completing her General Surgery residency, she returned to Montreal for a Pediatric Surgery fellowship at Sainte Justine Hospital (Université de Montréal), which she completed in 2005. She then joined the Division of Pediatric Surgery and the Department of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital (LHSC) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery. In 2012, she was promoted to Associate Professor. She assumed the role of Associate Director of Surgical Education in July 2014. She is also a review editor for Frontiers in Pediatric Surgery journal.

Her clinical areas of interest include Pediatric Thoracic and General Surgery, such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, bracing for pectus carinatum, nonoperative management of appendicitis and minimally invasive surgery. She helped develop the first Canadian Robotic Pediatric Surgery program. Her research interests are in the areas of fetal surgery with minimally invasive ways of correcting or improving outcomes for congenital anomalies such as bladder outlet obstruction and congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

Dr. Geoffrey Blair is a recently retired pediatric surgeon at the BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, BC. Being a pediatric general surgeon, he took seriously the need for clinical investigation in the field of surgery. He pursued topics related to congenital anomalies, thyroid surgery, and pediatric surgical oncology. 

He was the UBC Pediatric Surgery Program Director for our site since 1993, and the Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons since 2001. With the constant evolution of better surgical methods, he's concerned that older models of training and surgical resident assessment are not applicable to the current delivery of health care. Therefore, he continues to be enthusiastically engaged in educational research projects looking at pedagogical tools, such as "portfolio" based methods, to enhance learning and evaluation.

Links:

1. CUSEC Website: https://www.cusec-ccecp.com/

2. C-CASE is happening virtually on Oct 29 and 30th. Be sure to register! https://www.cusec-ccecp.com/about-1