In this episode, Dr. David Tom Cooke interviews Dr. Melanie Edwards from Integrated Health Associates in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Listeners will learn about Dr. Edwards’s experiences as a woman of Jamaican descent who spent many of her formative years in Canada. Her family eventually moved back to Jamaica where she finished high school at 16 years old. An ambitious Dr. Edwards went to college shortly thereafter, eager to start her undergraduate studies and get to medical school as soon as possible. Dr. Edwards shares that as a young child, she wanted to be a pediatrician, but by college, she was more enamored with surgery, and so she dug her heels in and “surgery ended up being fascinating and wonderful—everything that I hoped it would be.” Hear also what Dr. Edwards says about the importance of a team in cardiothoracic surgery and how having a strong group behind you is like having a “battalion at the ready.” “Same Surgeon, Different Light” is a program from the Society designed to demystify cardiothoracic surgery, revealing the men and women behind their surgical masks.

Learn more about STS diversity and inclusion efforts at sts.org/diversity.

Patients can learn more about cardiothoracic diseases and their treatments at ctsurgerypatients.org.