Role in FICEBO:
Clinical researcher / PhD candidate
Favorite part of your job?
Clinically I’m most interested in complex fracture surgery, especially around the elbow. It is challenging, but when done correctly, it can make a tremendous impact on the function and quality of life of my patients.
Science-wise, I love sharing a quest with like-minded skeptics, working with people with integrity and motivation, who really want to find the truth whether surgery is really helping our patients.
Why did you decide to enter your field?
In my previous life as a biophysics MSc student, I worked at a brain lab doing magnetoencephalography studies. Seeing physicists and engineers making cool things for doctors naturally lead me to medical school. While studying medicine I developed a deep interest in surgery, because it seemed to me that orthopaedics and especially traumatology had well defined answers to well defined problems. Oh, how wrong I was…
Who/What inspires you?
I’m inspired by the endless variety of life.
The most interesting article you’ve read recently?
A Delphi study involving very experienced US shoulder surgeons on what to recommend after a first-time shoulder dislocation. Interesting to see how the recommendations are far from uniform, and how the recommendations are both evidence-based, but also highly dependent on whether the dislocation happens early or late during an athlete’s season.
Your favorite book and why?
I have many favorite books but the one I borrow/recommend most is Iain M Banks’ Excession, which is wildly imaginative high-fly science fiction. It takes me to new worlds very different from our everyday lives!