Dr. Azarow is the Surgeon-in-Chief of Doernbecher Children’s Hospital of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Recently, he was also named as the interim chair of surgery.
Dr. Azarow earned his undergraduate degree from Franklin and Marshal College is 1981; his medical degree form F. Edward Herbert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University 1987; completed his general surgery residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1992, as well as a pediatric surgery fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario in 1996.
Upon completion of his fellowship, he was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington where he was appointed as the director of the surgical research program and chief of pediatric surgery. While in the Army, he rose to become the general surgery residency director and, eventually, Chief of Surgery, and retired at the rank of Colonel in 2008 after a 25 year career in the military which saw him serve several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and for which he received the Legion of Merit as well as dozens of other military awards. During this time, he oversaw 9 divisions, 5 residency programs, and was responsible for the smooth delivery of surgical education, research, and care during the constant movement of faculty due to the war on terrorism.
From a pediatric surgery standpoint, his paper on Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia entitled ”Tale of Two Cities: The Toronto Experience” is considered a classic work in the field and has helped guide the field away from ECMO usage and towards a pulmonary protective strategy with the use of conventional ventilators in neonates. His C.V. also currently lists over 75 peer-reviewed journal citations, over 25 book chapters, and 100s of presentations and invited named lectures.
Please enjoy with Dr. Kenneth Azarow!
Corrections
At one point in the interview I say that all of the AAMC’s specialty descriptions are pulled from the American Board of Surgery’s website, and that’s not true. They are all pulled from the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Selected Show Notes
“If you don’t love the operating room, and I mean, love the operating room, you should go into one of the medical specialties” -Dr. Azarow.
- ‘If you don’t desire to go into the OR at every opportunity, you can still be a successful resident and surgeon, but eventually you’re lack of pure desire will catch up to you. So, if you don’t have that desire to be in the OR with every spare moment you have, start thinking, sub-consciously, what you’ve got going on.’ -Dr. Azarow (paraphrased)
- Definition of pediatric surgery
American Pediatric Surgical Association
- Check out the public part of it, for a text book that has been re-written for the lay person…I couldn’t find it…let me know it you do.
Pediatric surgery as a population and birth dependent specialty because congenital anomalies occur at some low, but knowable frequency. As such, a peds surgeons need to have a big enough population base to sustain their practice.
- Therefore, most peds surgeons practice in densely populated urban areas (for among other reasons), resulting in a shortage of peds surgeons in rural areas.
Pediatric surgeons do not have an acute care service to take emergency cases; therefore, call can be fairly onerous for a peds surgeon.
Heads up: there are very few pediatric surgery fellowship spots. Plan accordingly!
Mentorship:
- The mentee chooses the mentor.
- If the mentor is interested, then the mentor will reciprocate attention.
- Then it is up to the mentee to maintain the relationship in the long-term.
Never too early to start learning about leadership.
Books
- Good to Great
- Built to Last
- Novels by Steve Berry.
I think the book for the lay person that Dr. Azarow the pediatric surgeon mentions is found at APSA website. Go to http://www.eapsa.org/ click on the Parents/Patients link. Under the “Find a pediatric surgeon” section there is a link to pdf called “Who Will Hold My Hand? A Guide for Parents Whose Child Needs an Operation.” The “book” covers a lot of different things but it also describes common pediatric conditions that require surgery. Thanks, I really enjoyed this interview.