Climate Change in Surgery

The Association for Surgical Education Podcast

Climate change is one of the greatest global public health threats of this century. This is an enormous issue that directly affects the field of surgery and disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable patient populations. As surgeon educators, we have the unique opportunity to lead sustainability efforts both in and out of the operating room. In this episode, we will learn from the expertise of our two surgeon leaders on the problem of climate change, the role of surgeons, and the strategies that we can apply both individually and collectively to minimize the environmental impact of our work, moving ourselves toward becoming climate-smart surgeons.

Sheina Theodore, MD joined Boston Medical Center in Fall of 2022 as faculty in the Acute Care Surgery Division and became Assistant Professor of Surgery at the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She went on to general surgery residency at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. She completed her clinical training in summer 2022 as a Surgical Critical Care fellow at Boston Medical Center. Her areas of focus and interest include surgical education, healthcare disparities, and outcomes research. She serves as the vice chair of the ASE DEI committee.

Ricardo J. Bello, MD, MPH, is a surgical oncology fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He did medical school at Universidad Central de Venezuela and then studied public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After starting his surgical training at Johns Hopkins University as a preliminary resident, he completed general surgery residency at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. His research interests are the oncologic and perioperative outcomes of patients with hepatopancreatobiliary cancers, surgical education, and interventions to improve the environmental sustainability of surgical services. He is a member of the ASE Citizenship and Global Responsibility Committee and the SAGES/EAES Sustainability Task Force, and is a co-investigator in a grant to develop a “Green OR Toolkit” with the Medical College of Wisconsin’s SHE (Sustainability, Health and Environment) Center.

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