SAGES Member Spotlight

 

Even after many years as a member, Dr. Dmitry Nepomnayshy’s most memorable SAGES experience is still the 007 spoof of his chairman and SAGES president Dr. Desmond Birkett at the 1998 annual meeting in Seattle.  Dr. Nepomnayshy was a resident, and it was an amazing opportunity to spend time with his mentor at the meeting and the social events after. He says, “Being together at the meeting helped me see him in a different light. It helped us become friends rather than just having a chair/resident relationship.”

As is the case with many members, the fun and camaraderie of the annual meeting was initially the main attraction for joining SAGES. But for Dr. Nepomnayshy, a graduate of the Ohio State University College of Medicine, “It’s always so fun and exciting to see new techniques and equipment,” adding that SAGES “is a quick moving society where in many committees things change and move forward quickly.”

He credits another former SAGES President, Dr. Dan Jones, for initiating his involvement on various SAGES committees, including Advocacy & Health Policy, FLS and Continuing Education. “I have come to learn so much about different aspects of ‘how the world works’ as a result on being on committees,” he says. “I’ve learned more than provided in return as a result of serving. Among other things, I’ve learned how to write test questions, how to create an educational product from scratch and how to calculate an RVU.”

In addition to Drs. Birkett and Jones, Dr. Nepomnayshy names a long list of mentors in no particular order: Drs. Danny Scott; Adnan Alseidi, Dimitrios Stefanidis; Neal Seymor; Peter Marcello; and, John Coller.

While he continues to take advantage of the many opportunities to learn and make friends within SAGES, in his downtime the New Englander also plans to continue enjoying his favorite outdoor sports: skiing and paddleboard surfing. But he stresses the latter will likely have to wait until spring. “People surf here even when it snows in the dead of winter. I don’t do it in winter, but have done it when the water temp is in the low 40s. A good wet suit really helps!” Brrr….

 

 

“Initially, my involvement in SAGES was based on the relevancy of the annual meeting content to my desired clinical practice,” says Salt Lake City-based Dr. Anna Ibele. “More recently, it’s the quality and research initiatives SAGES sponsors.”

Since joining SAGES as a resident at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Ibele has been actively involved in the association’s evolving initiatives, serving on several committees, including the Pediatric, Bariatric, Research and Career Development and Foregut committees.

As a third year resident, Dr. Ibele was encouraged by Dr. Jon Gould, then on faculty at the University of Wisconsin, to pursue her fellowship training and get involved with SAGES. Dr. Leena Khaitan is a more recent mentor, encouraging her participation and helping her launch advocacy projects as part of her work on the Foregut task force.

“My favorite aspect of being a SAGES member are the opportunities for friendship and collaboration with surgeons from all over the country. Each time I go to an annual meeting it feels like a reunion as much as it does an academic meeting. One of my most memorable SAGES experiences was being offered my first academic job at the University of Utah in 2014 when the meeting was held in Salt Lake City. I also love SAGES’ ability to catalyze collaborations among surgeons from diverse locations, practice types and levels of seniority to get meaningful work done in our respective fields.”

Long term, Dr. Ibele hopes to pay her experiences forward by mentoring and sponsoring students, residents and junior faculty, along with taking advantage of the ongoing opportunities to improve patient care through the research, education and advocacy opportunities that SAGES facilitates.

When she’s not caring for patients, doing research, and attending SAGES, Dr. Ibele is a busy wife and mom,and an avid gardener.  She says she’ll probably start a hobby farm when she retires from surgery. She’s well on her way, having started a farm to table group and seed saver exchange among fellow surgeons and other “surgery gardening nerds!”

How do you entice a new surgeon to join SAGES? For Dr. Yagnik Pandya, it was SAGES member Dr. Todd Ponsky’s combination of descriptive adjectives during his residency at Case Western: “Collegiality, camaraderie, relaxing and informative.”

Dr. Todd Ponsky and his father Dr. Jeff Ponsky, along with  Dr.Leena Khaitan, his advisor at Case Western, have all been mentors to Dr. Pandya, who completed his medical schooling in his native Mumbai.  He says, “l always knew I wanted to be a surgeon, and came to the United States where I could further my training and learn about the most state of the art medicine.”

Dr. Todd Ponsky also advised that the best way to get involved is to work on a SAGES committee, adding that Dr. Pandya’s combined Indian and U.S. clinical backgrounds would provide a unique perspective. Since joining SAGES, he’s taken that advice and has worked on three committees: Foregut; Metabolic and Bariatric and Foregut; and, Diversity, Leadership & Professional Development. He says he’ll continue to be actively involved, hoping to chair or co-chair a committee in the future.

Like many other SAGES members, Dr. Pandya notes that what sets SAGES apart is what brought him on in the first place. “Other surgical associations are more focused on the formal educational aspects. SAGES is more casual, laid back and friendlier. You learn but you’re also having fun. It’s a happy, cheerful and good environment.”

And like most other SAGES members, at least one meeting Sing-Off sticks in his mind as a memorable moment. For Dr. Pandya, it was at the Baltimore meeting where he was invited to join a group, headed by Dr. Jeff Ponsky, on stage. He recalls the emotional moment Dr. Ponsky told him, “You’re part of our team and I’m really proud of you.”

Paying it forward, Dr. Pandya says he is always recruiting new SAGES members at Boston University Medical School where he serves as site director for the school’s surgery clerkship. And when he’s not plugging SAGES or spending time with his family, Dr. Pandya also pursues his passion of making short films related to human relations and interactions. https://www.youtube.com/c/StorySunaoProductions/videos

 

 

According to Dr. Ivy Haskins, the best part of being a SAGES member is that everyone’s experience and input is valued, including surgeons at various levels of training and education.

“Anyone who is interested in endoscopy or GI surgery is not only welcomed and encouraged to join the society, but SAGES leadership really does an excellent job of ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table,” says Dr. Haskins.

A third generation University of Michigan Wolverine undergrad, Dr. Haskins graduated from the George Washington Medical School in Washington, D.C., where she also did her residency. She initially joined SAGES as an intern.

Now an active SAGES member, Dr. Haskins has continued to be involved in several SAGES committees: Resident and Fellow; Research and Career Development; Guidelines; and, previously Hernia. She is also currently a resident and fellow representative to the SAGES board 2020-22.

“SAGES is my academic family and the annual meeting is my academic highlight,” says Dr. Haskins. This year in Vegas, she gave two invited talks, presented her research on postoperative opioid use in foregut surgery, and moderated the Resident and Fellow session. She says the highlight of the meeting was receiving a virtual SAGES coin from past president Dan Jones for helping increase FUSE testing availability for fellows through the online portal.

Dr. Haskins, who also loves the positive networking aspect of the annual meeting, adds that long-term she hopes to continue to foster lifelong professional and personal relationships with other SAGES members and hopes to hold a leadership position.

Dr. Robert Catania recalls that when he joined SAGES in 2002, “it was a small society filled with members who were thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams about the future of surgery.” At the time, laparoscopic surgery was still struggling to gain acceptance and Dr. Catania relied on SAGES videos to give him a glimpse into the future.

He was “hooked” after attending his first meeting. “The same surgeons who were performing laparoscopic feats in the videos were walking around the meeting hall in shorts and flip flops. It was a totally different experience than I had been exposed to at other meetings. The work that SAGES is doing in surgical education to promote safe, reproducible, complex surgery is the aspect of membership that means the most to me.”

It took more than ten years for Dr. Catania to join the ranks of friends and mentors who were active SAGES leaders. “My kids were grown, my practice was busy, but I felt like something professionally was missing,” he explains. “I really missed the intense interaction with my peers.”

He joined the newly created Community Practice group, which allowed him to engage with other members in a more personal way and give back. He counts fellow committee members Drs. Caitlin Halbert and Kevin Wasco among the many SAGES members and mentors who’ve been instrumental in his development as a surgeon.

His long-term goal is to continue to engage community practice surgeons and increase their participation in SAGES activities and “be part of a society that is relentlessly focused on improving patient outcomes.”

When not engaged with patients and SAGES, Dr. Catania spends time with his family hiking, mountain biking and restoring a farmhouse in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.