Joey Wahler (Host): It's helping launch promising medical careers, so we're discussing Mobile Infirmary General Surgery residency program. Our guest is Dr. Derek Robinson. He's a General Surgeon and also the Program's Director. This is Life Cast from Infirmary Health. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Joey Wahler.

Hi there, Dr. Robinson. Welcome to you.

Derek Robinson, MD: Good to be here. It's nice to see you.

Host: Same here. We appreciate the time. So first, this program only recently launched, so how's it going so far?

Derek Robinson, MD: Well, it's been exciting. We've got everything up and running, got approved by the ACGME, so we're excited to take off.

Host: So what first motivated you to become involved in this endeavor?

Derek Robinson, MD: Chris Dyas, one of the surgeons at Mobile Infirmary contacted me, he was one of my former residents, and told me they were interested in starting a surgical program in Mobile at this hospital. And, Mobile's always had a very special place in my heart because I trained, in medical school here for four years.

And, more significantly, I met my wife Lisa, at the university. It was exciting. So I told them I'd come down and give them some advice. I've been in practice for over 30 years in Birmingham, Alabama, an associate program director at a program there, and I had no intention of relocating to Mobile, but I was happy to come down and give him advice. When I got here, I was just taken in by the enthusiasm of the hospital leadership and the physicians who were initiating the program and the commitment of the hospital. They, dished out $4.7 million to build a medical education space here at the university. And this left me with one question. You know, why do you want to start a program here at this hospital?

And they gave me an unequivocal answer. They wanted to impart surgical knowledge for future generations, to better the community as a whole. And with those things in line, I just thought I kind of fell in love with that idea and just wanted to be a part of it.

Host: That's awesome. So as director, what would you say separates a general surgery residency from other such programs?

Derek Robinson, MD: Being a proceduralist, we spend a lot of time in the operating room, and so you're learning either from upper level residents or in our system, you'll be learning directly from board certified general surgeons. So it's a close knit one-on-one, instant constant feedback, to develop the surgical skills that you need so you can take care of patients in a variety of situations.

It's really a very close collaboration between the surgeon and the resident.

Host: General surgery has always intrigued me in that I look at it as kind of the medical equivalent of a diner, an old school diner where you can walk in and order just about anything, from breakfast to dinner to Italian food, you name it. And I wonder sometimes at such places, how do they know how to cook all that stuff. Just like I wonder how you and yours know how to do all these different kinds of procedures?

Derek Robinson, MD: It's a five year program and we follow a system of education set forth by the American College of Surgeons, and the American Board of Surgery, has a great platform. And so we cover all the areas of anatomy, physiology, and of course surgical procedures. We work on, do a, a variety of operations and we prepare some of our residents to move on to other subspecialties in surgery.

Host: Absolutely. So what would you say more so than anything, Doctor, makes Mobile Infirmary's program unique compared to others? What do you really hang your hat on, so to speak?

Derek Robinson, MD: I think that Mobile Infirmary is going to be very unique for several reasons. Number one is you're going to be immediately with a general surgeon that is board certified who is training you while he is in a busy general surgery practice doing what general surgeons do every day. This close-knit relationship is the ultimate way to learn.

You're not learning from being in the hospital for two or three years before you get in the operating room. Our residents will start day one with their surgeon in the operating room, learning, those sort of things. Secondly, unlike some universities, our faculty are not obligated to take a resident, so they teach because they want to teach, and I think that makes a big difference.

Third, I would say that, when you come here, you'll join a new family. It's going to be a small program, but there is going to be a close knitness to this. We have a medicine program that started and they've got a good culture of wellness, caring, and community outreach. And so all new residents that come to Mobile Infirmary will kind of go into that new family, so they'll be protected, cared for, and have immediate contacts with other people and the community.

Lastly, I'd say Mobile, Alabama is a unique place to train. You have the French, Spanish and English cultures and all mingled. You can see it in the architecture throughout the city. The, city is on the Gulf Coast. You're just a short car ride away from beautiful white beaches and turquoise oceans.

You can eat outside almost all year round. And there are plenty of restaurants that do that. You can have a dinner cruise on the bay if you want. Got five star restaurants and world famous seafood. It's just a good place to train, a good place to raise a family.

Host: White beaches and turquoise water. I mean, it's certainly a, a perfect atmosphere, it seems for when you're not working right.

Derek Robinson, MD: Yeah, we hope they'll get there once in a while, but not too often.

Host: Right. All in moderation, of course. So what key things should your potential applicants know going into this program, do you think?

Derek Robinson, MD: Number one, when you come to this program and you finish this program, you will be ready to take your boards to be board certified, but more importantly, you'll be comfortable in seeing a patient and operating on them independently without any need for someone holding your hand.

You'll also, consequently be ready if to go into a fellowship, if that's your desire. That's the number one thing. Number two, you should know that the faculty's behind you, behind your education, the hospital's committed to you. I do want to say something about the hospital. So this is the, one of the oldest hospitals in Alabama, 116 years old, and you don't stay around for 116 years without keeping up with the times.

This was the first hospital in the area to do robotic surgery. Did the first thoracic lobectomy, the first robotic lung resection. Today, lead the Gulf Coast here with 10 DaVinci robot systems and two new DaVinci 5 robots are coming to Mobile. The hospital is 681 beds, 20,000 operations, 700 physicians on staff, and over 52 specialties.

So they've given back to the community, they've given $49 million of unreimbursed medical care to the community. So it's just a great place to be and I think this program will do well and educate good general surgeons.

Host: Outstanding. So how do you ensure that residents get comprehensive support for both their clinical skills and their personal growth throughout the program? You touched on it a moment ago mentioning this family-like collaborative atmosphere, that's important early on, isn't it?

Derek Robinson, MD: I think it is important, but it's not just early on. It's going to be throughout their training. Because they're going to be working with faculty and the faculty while teaching these clinical skills, and we call the competencies in surgery, they're also role models. They're role models of leadership and role models of professionalism.

So as a model, they'll be nurturing these residents along in that extra growth. In addition, there'll be structured things such as leadership conferences, wellness committees, hospital committees, so they will learn to collaborate with other physicians and this'll help their overall growth and hopefully help them become leaders when they leave this program.

Leaders in their community, leaders in their hospital, to promote better medical systems for our country.

Host: Speaking of which Doctor, quite often it seems those early mentors during residency can be very influential to say the least on a young doctor. Right. I presume you had some such mentors in your career.

Derek Robinson, MD: Yeah, I remember every one of them. I can remember a lot of the good and a lot of the negative, but you learn from them. And I stood on their shoulders. They stood on the shoulders of those before, as people have said for many years. And so while we are the ones doing the training, we owe it all to those great surgeons that came before us for the last, you know, 500 years.

Host: Absolutely. Couple of other things before we let you go. You mentioned earlier that your residents go into the OR literally on day one. How does that launch the program right out of the gate? I mean, that kind of firsthand experience right from the first moment really lets people know whether this is for them or not, right.

Derek Robinson, MD: Yeah, well, I hope they know it's for them when they apply here, but yeah, it gets them right in and it gets them engaged and rather than spending a year doing work in the hospital, which is all important. And so our residents will rotate through a variety of different services. Breast surgery, colorectal surgery, oncology surgery, basic general surgery.

They'll rotate on ICUs, they'll take call at night. So they'll go through a lot of different things, but they will go to the emergency room to see a patient with their Attending. They'll go to the office to see a patient and they'll go to the operating room with them. Now, obviously on the first day they're going to be more in a learning and a assistant role, but we want to get them in there early so they get comfortable with all the things that are involved in an operation and get them started and get them excited about what they're going to do for the rest of their life.

Host: Looking ahead, how do you envision the program evolving, say, over the next few years? What are the exciting developments these residents can expect?

Derek Robinson, MD: So Mobile Infirmary started a medicine program in 2024, and we're starting a surgery program now. We have three additional residencies that we plan to start. And right now we have two or three fellowship programs and some of which are in the application phase at the moment. So we're expanding medical education here and I think it's going to be a great collaboration effort.

I expect to add more general surgery faculty and possibly in three years we may form a consortium with the remainder of the hospitals in the Infirmary Health System, which will give us just greater access to more operations and more educational areas.

Host: Finally, Doctor, in summary, I know you've said that teaching these residents for you isn't just a job, it's a privilege. Well put. How so?

Derek Robinson, MD: I think most physicians are honored to take care of a patient. It's a privilege to see someone, it's a privilege to be invited into their lives. It's a very personal thing, and you're affecting lives in many ways, and people are telling you things they may not even tell their spouse or their children or their parents.

And so it's a special place that physicians, you know, have to go and, it's really someone opening up to you and you deserve, or you're required or you should feel obligated to give them the best that you can give them. And in an operation, you need to be prepared and you need to be ready. And I think that's what we're trying to get these guys ready to do.

Host: Folks we trust you are now more familiar with Mobile Infirmary Medical Center's General Surgery Residency Program. Dr. Derek Robinson. I'm sure these young doctors are in great hands with you and yours, so keep up all your great work and thanks so much again.

Derek Robinson, MD: Thank you Joey. Good to see you.

Host: Absolutely. Same here. And for more information, please visit infirmaryhealth.org/miresidency.

You can also follow on social media at MI_gensurgery. Now, if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. Thanks so much again for being part of Life Cast from Infirmary Health.