Professor Scott J. Swanson: without compromising surgical quality, minimally invasive operation is less expensive than open operation

Editor’s note

On the 8^th West China Forum on Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery held in Kunming, China in August 2016, we were honored to have an interview with Professor Scott J. Swanson from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Professor Scott J. Swanson: without compromising surgical quality, minimally invasive operation is less expensive than open operation (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1170

Professor Swanson shared important data and experience about “Mini-invasive esophagectomy” in his speech given on the Forum (Figure 2). Also, he has recently published an interesting article entitled “The value of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: follow the money!” on European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Therefore, our interview specially focuses on Professor Swanson’s views on minimally invasive thoracic surgery. Particularly, this is the 7th time that Professor Swanson came to China. What progresses he has witnessed on Chinese thoracic surgery? As Professor of Surgery in Harvard Medical School, how does he look at the training of surgeons in Harvard? Hope this interview will bring some insights or useful knowledge to readers (Figure 3).

Figure 2 Professor Scott J. Swanson was giving his speech on “Mini-invasive esophagectomy” on the 8^th West China Forum on Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery held in Kunming, China in August, 2016.

Figure 3 After the interview, Professor Swanson and our Science Editor (Melanie He) were happy to take a photo for memory.

Experts’ introduction

Prof. Scott J. Swanson is a Thoracic Surgeon and Director of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is chief surgical officer of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and is a professor in surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Prof. Swanson received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his general and cardiothoracic surgical residencies at BWH. He completed a fellowship in vascular biology at Harvard Medical School and a thoracic oncology fellowship at BWH. Prof. Swanson is board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery. He has been listed as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly and named a top thoracic surgeon by Boston Magazine.

Prof. Swanson’s major clinic research interests focus on thoracic cancer treatment. Specifically, he has pioneered minimally invasive techniques for esophageal, lung, and mediastinal tumors. He has developed a clinical research database for lung cancer for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which has over 2,500 patients enrolled. Prof. Swanson’s current research examines how to improve outcomes for early lung cancer. In addition, he looks at some of the molecular markers of both good and bad outcomes in early lung cancer. He is an editor for the thoracic text book, Surgery of the Chest, as well as the Atlas of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery (VATS), and is on several editorial boards.

Interview questions (Figure 1)

• You have compared mini-invasive esophagectomy (MIE) and open esophagectomy in your speech. How do you look at the two surgical approaches?
• You recently published an article entitled “The value of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: follow the money!” What’s your opinion on the future of VATS?
• Is there any place of the operations conducted by Chinese doctors that makes you most surprised/impressive?
• Would you mind sharing the training way of surgeons in Harvard Medical School?

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/vats.2016.10.05). The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. He CX. Professor Scott J. Swanson: without compromising surgical quality, minimally invasive operation is less expensive than open operation. Asvide 2016;3:399. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1170

[Science Editor: Chao-Xiu (Melanie) He, VATS, hecx@amegroups.com]