Daniel P Raymond1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2VATS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. VATS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: vats@amegroups.com
This interview can be cited as: Raymond DP, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of VATS: Dr. Daniel P Raymond. Video-assist Thorac Surg. 2025. Available from: https://vats.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-vats-dr-daniel-p-raymond.
Expert introduction
Dr. Daniel P Raymond (Figure 1) is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, Lerner College of Medicine, and the Quality Director for the Division of Thoracic Surgery and the Center for Chest Wall Disease. He received his medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University after completing his Bachelor of Arts in Biological Basis of Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania. He then completed his General Surgery training at the University of Virginia, including a two-year Surgical Infectious Disease Fellowship, followed by a Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital prior to moving to Cleveland in 2011.
Dr. Raymond's clinical interests include minimally invasive lung surgery, innovation in chest wall surgery, surgical quality, and surgical infection. He has been an active member of the Society of Thoracic Surgery Database Committee, the Society of Thoracic Surgery Workforce on Evidence-Based Surgery, the American Board of Thoracic Surgery General Thoracic Surgery Committee, the Cleveland Clinic Executive Cancer Committee, and the Cleveland Clinic Anticoagulation and VTE Enterprise Quality Committee. His research primarily focuses on surgical quality and outcomes related to both malignant and benign diseases of the chest and has resulted in over one hundred peer-reviewed publications. He is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgery and the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Chest Physicians.
Figure 1 Dr. Daniel P Raymond
Interview
VATS: What inspired you to dedicate your clinical research to minimally invasive lung surgery and innovation in chest wall surgery?
Dr. Raymond: My initial research interests involved surgical infectious disease. My fellowship, under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Sawyer, was transformative for me. I recall his comments on my first day, “We are going to teach you how to do research but, more importantly, you are going to learn how to think.” He was absolutely correct. Research, as we all know, meanders with our careers, interests, and opportunities. I was fortunate to have acquired the analytical capacity to capitalize on opportunities that I encountered during my training and career in Thoracic Surgery.
VATS: What are some recent innovations in chest wall surgery that you are particularly excited about? What impacts do they have on the landscape of surgical treatment?
Dr. Raymond: What I am most excited about is the relative lack of recent innovation in chest wall surgery. The only contemporary innovation has been rib plating, however, it is understood very poorly. This is frustrating for the practitioner on a day-to-day basis but the opportunities are enormous for those who are interested in solving those problems.
VATS: Your research focuses on surgical quality and outcomes. What are some key findings in this aspect that have emerged from your studies? How do these findings influence your clinical practice and decision-making today?
Dr. Raymond: From a quality and outcomes perspective, participation in the STS Database and the emerging AATS database are most impactful to me. These efforts require a tremendous amount of work by a dedicated group of practitioners with tireless support from professional societies to move the needle for patient care. The efforts of these quality groups, moreover, shapes the daily practice of all Thoracic surgeons. Furthermore, Cardiothoracic surgery has been the leader in this type of effort worldwide and provides an example that inspires other specialties to make similar efforts. It has been an honor to be a member of the database teams.
VATS: As the Quality Director for the Division of Thoracic Surgery, what initiatives or strategies have you implemented to enhance surgical quality and patient safety? How have these changes impacted patient outcomes?
Dr. Raymond: I have been fortunate to work in an organization that highly prizes quality and outcomes. It is in fact what attracted me to this role. The cornerstone of my efforts has been transparency with respect to individual surgeon’s outcomes. Our group has a dedicated monthly Morbidity and Mortality conference and reviews all events from the prior month using the STS database output that is stratified by surgeon. We are all very open in our discussions and work toward a second goal: optimization and standardization of care. The conclusions from this conference then evolve into quality initiatives that lead to formal policies through the monthly faculty meeting. This is a constantly evolving process with themes that can be repeated with time. Our regular attainment of three-star ranking in both lung and esophageal surgery as well as our remarkably low postoperative mortality rates in comparison to national standards, are the fruits of such labor.
VATS: In your opinion, what are some areas of surgical quality and surgical infection that have received insufficient attention? How can the thoracic surgery community address these gaps?
Dr. Raymond: Knowledge regarding disease-specific mortality is lacking from databases and studies, and this impairs our ability to balance the impact of disease management against the counter-balancing risks of patient comorbidities. It would be ideal if every thoracic surgeon knew their own overall and disease-specific five-year survival for each cancer they manage. Patient-reported outcomes are also an area of opportunity and challenge. We can measure quantity of life, but we need to measure quality better.
With regard to surgical infectious disease, the simple recognition of this as a specialty that requires appropriate and specific training needs further development. The Surgical Infection Society has moved this needle significantly, but it is a big lift. Unfortunately, many surgeons do not understand some of the basic principles of surgical infection, such as source control, appropriate antibiosis, and antibiotic resistance, which are daily factors in our lives.
VATS: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of minimally invasive techniques evolving in thoracic surgery? What technological or procedural innovations do you believe will have the greatest impact on patient care in the coming years?
Dr. Raymond: Minimally invasive surgery is now the standard of care in Thoracic Surgery. I have an interesting perspective as I finished training during the emergence of VATS surgery and thus had to learn VATS lung surgery primarily as a junior faculty. With the emergence and proliferation of robotic surgery, interestingly, VATS surgeons are becoming an “endangered species” now. I suspect that robotic surgery will ultimately supplant VATS surgery as the technology becomes cheaper and more accessible. There is certainly still a role for VATS but the reality is that it has the simple limitation of not having a wrist in the chest. As a result, it is more difficult to perform and teach. A technology, such as the robot, which enhances the learning curve is certainly desirable.
VATS: How has your experience been as an Editorial Board Member of VATS?
Dr. Raymond: It is a pleasure to have a glimpse into the minds of the many brilliant contributors who have dedicated themselves to advancing our field.
VATS: As an Editorial Board Member, what are your expectations and aspirations for VATS?
Dr. Raymond: To support quality research in order to advance our field.