IN IT
FOR THE
LONG
HAUL
In a career that can span 40, even 50 years, a decade can make a difference
30 31 Years
31 YEARS OUT
MR HILAL BAHIA
Class of 1991 Consultant in plastics and burns, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon, Edinburgh, Scotland
As Senior Lead Surgeon of the Wallace Burns Unit, oncoplastic breast surgeon and aesthetic surgeon, a typical week involves a full day operating on Monday, either at St John’s Hospital plastic surgery unit, or at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh Breast Unit with alternate Tuesday mornings taken up with private work, while Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are outpatient clinics and Tuesday evening is a private clinic. Wednesday mornings are for burns trauma operating. I also carry out an adult exceptional referral pathway multidisciplinary team (MDT) on Wednesday lunchtimes, for assessing eligibility for cosmetic procedures to be approved for surgery on the NHS. Thursdays are dedicated to private clinics and surgery; Friday mornings are for NHS operating and the afternoon for teaching. Looking back, what were the best decisions you made? Having opted to follow a career path in the UK after graduating in 1991, getting appointed to a run-through training programme was a challenge. In the 1990s, as an SHO, you were still able to apply for standalone jobs, and so I would apply for a new surgical specialty post every six to twelve months and move hospital. However, despite becoming an experienced and senior SHO in plastic surgery, I found I still wasn’t being shortlisted for registrar interviews. I decided that I needed to do something radical in order to reinvent myself. I applied for a research job in breast cancer genetics (while I was a SHO in plastic surgery in Hull), with the assistance of my consultant at the time Mr Michael Kerin (now Professor of Surgery in Galway). I was offered the job, but was afraid that it was too laboratory-based and initially declined it, but was convinced to rethink my decision. I think this was the best career decision that I ever made, as I gained a MD degree for my work over a period of 18 months, which led to my being shortlisted for every registrar job thereafter, before finally being appointed to a training number in Edinburgh.
18
What advice would you give your younger self? With hindsight, perhaps I might have gone for a research post sooner in my career, but I would have had a much less diverse journey and gained less experience in other useful surgical subspecialties. Run-through training has changed all that now, and made it easier for trainees to progress through their chosen specialty, although this is at the expense of a breadth of surgical experience.
20 Years
20 YEARS OUT
DR VICTOR PEÑA-ARAUJO
Class of 2002 Health Coaching Manager, MiSalud.ai, Texas, USA
My ambition was always to be a surgeon so I trained in surgery for more than eight years but in 2010, during my surgical fellowship in London, I discovered the little-known field of lifestyle medicine (LM), which aims to prevent and mitigate lifestyle-related chronic diseases through behaviour modification of the individual. Having seen how dramatic surgical interventions failed to address the root causes of underlying disease, LM intrigued me sufficiently to try a radical experiment; leave my surgical training, move with my French wife and infant twins to the US, and start a completely new career path in LM health coaching. I spent two years of intensive, self-directed study to re-skill, devouring all the best courses on LM (from Harvard, Yale, among others), trained as a health coach, and established a virtual, boutique health coaching company (ELITE Personalized Health, LLC). I coach clients and tutor medical students (teaching is another passion of mine). I have recently been enjoying private corporate consulting on the topics of LM, digital health and innovation. As the Health Coaching Program Manager at MiSalud.ai, the only telehealth platform that provides immediate, affordable and private access to Spanish-speaking doctors, I am implementing LM to help the underserved Hispanic population. I work remotely with a close-knit team across time zones, with no more than an hour or two of live meetings each day.
