I filmed my second Video Journal when I brought my son up to Yale University in New Haven last weekend. Rico is a rising senior at Yale University and every time I visit the campus, it brings back great memories of my Plastic Surgery training at Yale. Rico was actually born at Yale New Haven Hospital during my residency program.
I have trained at a number of great institutions including Tulane, Charity Hospital in New Orleans, University of Wisconsin, Royal Marsden Hospital in London, NYU, and Yale University. The Yale Plastic Surgery Program was unique in that they taught via the Socratic Method instead of the Great Master’s Method used by other teaching programs.
In the Socratic Method you arrive at knowledge through a process of questioning and answering. The exchange stimulates logical thinking and illuminates ideas. In the Great Master’s method, students learn the techniques developed by the great masters. I feel that the Socratic Method is better suited for the field of Plastic Surgery, as every patient situation requires a unique solution. Techniques learned from the great masters may not be the best solutions in certain individual cases.
During my Plastic Surgery residency in the mid-eighties, my Chairman, Dr Steven Ariyan once said ” Twenty years out of training you won’t be doing anything like you learned it here”. As I celebrate my 20th year in practice, I reflect on how grateful I am for having trained at Yale!
