Fun Reading!

 

Welcome back everyone! In this blog post I’m going to show you some reliable articles I found that helped me make an educated choice for a future career. These are articles that explain what it means to be a cardiac surgeon

 

First article: Medical School Headquarters. September 2020. Cardiothoracic Surgeon Talks Heart Surgery & A Day In His Life.  https://medicalschoolhq.net/ss-159-cardiothoracic-surgeon-talks-heart-surgery-a-day-in-his-life/

 

This article explains what was discussed on MedEdMedia’s podcast with Dr. Brian Lima. Dr. Lima is a well renowned cardiac surgeon who also wrote a book called Heart to Beat. In this podcast he explains what is a typical day as a cardiac surgeon and also helps the students that want to go into surgery what to expect. He talks about when his interest in cardiac surgery began, biggest myths and misconceptions around his field, the types of patients he encounters, his life outside of the hospital, the training path to go into cardiac surgery, he also gives a message to future primary care physicians and his younger self, which I found very touching, and many more topics. This article really motivated me to go into cardiac surgery and really answered all of my questions and anxiety I held about choosing a career path. Thank you, Dr. Lima!

 

Second article: Canadian Medical Association. December 2019. Cardiovascular / Thoracic Surgery Profile. https://www.cma.ca/sites/default/files/2020-10/cardiothoracic-surgery-e.pdf

 

This second article is from the Canadian Medical Association in 2019. It’s a very complete PDF that shows many different statistics surrounding cardiac surgeons in Canada. It shows the number of cardiac surgeons in each province, which you’ll see is smaller than I thought, the percentage by gender and age, the percentages by work settings, the hours worked per week and the hours on-call per month, the satisfaction of work-life balance and the number of retirees. In this podcast, he explains what is a typical day as a cardiac surgeon and also helps the students that want to go into surgery what to expect. It’s nice to visually see the statistics and how working out in the world is really like. Thank you, Canadian Medical Association!

 

Third article: Heart Attack and Stroke Symptoms. February 9th, 2021. Newer Heart Valve Surgery Options. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-valve-problems-and-disease/understanding-your-heart-valve-treatment-options/newer-heart-valve-surgery-options  

This third article presents the newer surgery options that are way less invasive than open heart surgery. It shows two minimally invasive surgeries to treat problems with heart valves. It also explains what criteria needs to be met to be able to get this type of surgery. It's a really interesting article that really shows off how far our technology can take us and how this new type of surgery will save many more lives that could not get fixed by open heart surgery.

Fourth article: Heart Foundation. (n.d.). Keeping your heart healthy. https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/heart-health-education/keeping-your-heart-healthy 

In this fourth article, the Heart Foundation explains all that you can do to keep your hearth healthy and live a long and healthy life. They explain that eating healthy foods, having regular physical activity, and quitting smoking are of utmost importance to keep your heart healthy. They also give resources on how to quit smoking, because we all know it's not easy. They explain what a healthy diet consists of and what is the definition of regular physical activity. This is a great resource to check if your lifestyle benefits your heart or harms it in any way.