Today, I welcome Dr. Kamshad Raiszadeh—a well-renowned spine surgeon with more than 20 years of surgical experience—onto The SurgeonMasters Podcast. During his two-decades of work, Dr. Raiszadeh has noticed a dramatic and dangerous increase in surgery for the treatment of neck and low back pain, a trend he is trying to combat through his new book, Take Back Control: A Surgeon’s Guide to Healing the Spine Without Medication or Surgery. While the content of his book might be extremely interesting and useful to those suffering from back pain, I invited Kam to talk about his background and experience that writing the book and getting it published. 

After receiving his medical degree from UCSF, Dr. Raiszadeh completed an orthopedic residency at U.C. Davis, and training in adult and pediatric spine surgery at the Hospital for Joint Disease in New York. Today, he is board certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, an active member of the Scoliosis Research Society, an active member of the North American Spine Society, and the medical director of the Advanced Spine Institute & Minimally Invasive Spine center at Alvarado Hospital.

Listen as Dr. Raiszadeh and I discuss a range of topics, including:

• Why he is so passionate about the non-operative care of the spine, despite being trained and driven to be a technically excellent surgeon…
• The importance of learning new medical and non-medical perspectives beyond your residency and fellowship training…
• His belief that surgeons are foolishly competitive…
• How to prolong your energy and career by doing what you love…
• How practicing unhealthy empathy and lack of self-care can lead to burnout…
• And more...