Season 1, Episode 31: Mentor of the Month Interview with Dr. L. Michael Brunt

In this edition of SSAT Mentor of the Month, Dr. Victoria Gershuni, a member of the SSAT Resident and Fellow Education Committee and current Advanced GI, Foregut, and Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis interviewed Dr. L. Michael Brunt.

Dr. Brunt, is Professor of Surgery and Section Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is a Past President of SAGES and leads the SAGES Safe Cholecystectomy Task Force with the goal of reducing bile duct injuries. Dr. Brunt is immediate Past President of the Central Surgical Association and current President of the Fellowship Council which oversees Advanced GI and MIS Fellowship training in the US and Canada. He is on the editorial board of Annals of Surgery and has over 240 publications. His clinical and research interests are in clinical outcomes studies in minimally invasive surgery, benign foregut surgery, safety in cholecystectomy, sports hernias, and surgical education. He has received the Philip J. Wolfson Outstanding Teacher Award from the Association for Surgical Education, the Distinguished Clinician Award from Washington University, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University. For the last 27 years, he has served as Team Surgeon for the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions, the St. Louis Blues.

Questions answered in this Mentor of the Month episode are:

1. What role has mentoring had in your life? Was there a particular mentor or colleague who played a significant role in your career development?
2. What is your philosophy for training the current generation of surgeons and how does this differ from how you were trained?
3. What advice do you have for young surgeons at the beginning of their surgical career; what are your tips for transition to practice?
4. What components do you consider to be key for the successful transition from trainee to faculty?
5. Do you have any intraoperative teaching strategies for young faculty to use when working with junior residents?
6. What do you consider your most meaningful accomplishment in surgery/ what contribution to surgery are you most proud of?