Surgeons have true grit

I was invited to speak at Diabetic Limb Salvage Conference this month, and have come to the conclusion that surgeons have true git in the battle against infection. It takes amazing strength of character to treat patients with severe wounds, both from the perspective of delivering difficult news to patients regarding treatment options and the potential to lose limbs, to work in the OR to physically remove infected tissue before it spreads. One of the surgeons I spoke to, told me that he knows a fellow will be successful if he/she can make quick decisions on-the-fly and walk into unknown situations in the OR confidently. I “experienced” this myself, in live demo, watching surgeons at a remote OR at George Washington University make quick pivots and choices as they encountered unexpected damage when reconstructing a person’s foot. It was truly eye opening considering wounds in three dimensions, considering choices in sampling, and how microbial communities organize in space and time. I was perhaps one of the only computational/micro-biologist in a room full of 1000 clinicians and nurses. My conclusion: computational biologists need to interface with the real world of patient care on occasion to create better algorithms and sample prep considerations that can lead to antibiotic stewardship and directed care for infection.