Outgoing Vascular & Endovascular Surgery Society (VESS) President Misty Humphries, MD, used her presidential address to outline how trainees and young vascular surgeons can “thrive and not just survive as a vascular surgeon.”
The University of California, Davis interim chief of vascular surgery provided five lessons she has learned to help enable her success during the VESS Annual Winter Meeting in Breckenridge, Colorado (Feb. 6–9).
Working in reverse order, she opened with a call to “maintain connection beyond your immediate circle.” Humphries said: “Not everyone you meet will stay with you for the entire length of your journey, and that’s OK, because those people were only meant to be there for that moment. But the people who matter—they will be there at the finish line.”
Next, she urged those gathered to “celebrate and remember the good things.” Vascular surgeons are notoriously superstitious, Humphries said, but urged, “Find a way to keep track of the wins.”
Also, she said, “let go of the emotions that are not serving you.” Vascular surgeons tend to hold themselves to impossible standards, she noted, “constantly replaying the things we should have done differently, but perfectionism is an illusion, and it doesn’t make you better—a lot of times it will just make you feel worse.”
“Surrender to the hard, let go of the idea of balance,” Humphries continued. Vascular surgery has some of the highest stakes in all of medicine, she said. Paralysis after an aneurysm repair, stroke after a carotid repair, a failed bypass leading to limb loss. Invoking the world of sports, she said, “The great masters recognize the difficulty, and they repeatedly run back into the fire. It’s part of their job—it’s part of our job, part of our lives.” If greatness is the goal, Humphries added, “then there will be no balance.”
Finally, she said, “the best way to thrive as a vascular surgeon is to stand up, even if you are the only one in the room standing.” Vascular surgery is difficult,” Humphries said. “Not everyone understands it, quite honestly, and I think we have to give a little bit of grace there sometimes.”
Meanwhile, at the close of the meeting, Ravi Ranjani, MD, a professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, took over as VESS president.
