After 25 years in academic surgery where I had the opportunity to teach medical students and young surgeons, conduct research, work closely with entrepreneurs and med tech startups, travel the world meeting other surgeons and operating with them at their hospital, serve as a C-suite administrator for the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida, and then having spent the last 10 years in solo private practice being directly involved in every aspect of my patients’ care, I have an extremely rare and unique perspective on the delivery of healthcare, surgery, and especially esophageal surgery.
Why Start This Blog?
After urging from my patients and family to share some of this unique experience, and my similarly unique interpretation and perspective on those topics, I have decided to incorporate a Blog into my practice website. Herein I will reflect on common problems and dilemmas I have seen, questions that I am asked over and over again by patients, and some tips and pearls for how you, an individual interested in learning more about esophageal conditions and their management, whether for yourself or a loved one, can understand and pursue care for those conditions.
What to Expect
With at least monthly posts, my goal is to reflect on issues that I face every day in providing care for patients seeking answers to questions about their esophageal conditions, especially sorting out symptoms, advice they have received from their physician(s), recommended treatments and the success or failure of those treatments, and to sort out the complex path to finding the best options for your situation.
A notable part of this blog will be to NOT regurgitate information already available elsewhere, but rather to interpret some of that information in the context of my 30-year journey through all corners of healthcare delivery, applying my unique academic and practical application of that knowledge and experience.
I hope that this content will be informative and provide some missing insights or direction as you follow your journey to feeling better and optimally managing your esophageal condition. I am confident that there are very few surgeons with my background and insights into these problems.
Visit often to continue your journey to success. If you’d like to discuss your situation with me directly, send us a note or call the office. I’m confident that I can help.
C. Daniel Smith, MD
NOTE: The writings here will be a combination of what is generally known and accepted by medicine (published data), what is known by me through my own clinical experience (experiential data) and a combination of published data, clinical experience and my overall life views and feelings (my opinion). When needed, I will try to point which set of data I am using throughout these writings.