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Looking for the Logicalby Lori Williams
So he was fascinated when he came across a magazine article with the premise that if all nations put aside their differences and worked together, they would be able to create a habitable atmosphere on Mars. "The bottom line of this article was if we could put all our energies and resources into the success of a big project, we could accomplish something this huge," he said. While Sawaya is not interested in pursuing human habitation on Mars, he firmly believes that big projects yield big results. Sawaya also doesn't mind breaking new ground - it's familiar territory for this innovative surgeon. This spring Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center announced the creation of a joint neurosurgery program in a shared department with Sawaya leading the effort. After chairing the M. D. Anderson neurosurgery department for 15 years, he added the same responsibility at BCM, which brings together top experts in the field. Such a "big project" has never been done before - these two strong institutions have teamed up on studies and joined on programs, but never have they gone the extra - and major - step of sharing a department chair. He believes that it makes perfect sense. "When it was first suggested that maybe I could take on the role of heading neurosurgery at Baylor as well as M.D. Anderson, my first response was, 'I would love to do it if the presidents of both institutions would agree to it.' The only way to reach our ultimate goal would be to pull in the best resources without competition or tension." Baylor President Dr. Peter G. Traber and M. D. Anderson President John Mendelsohn easily recognized that the merger was a winner. Mendelsohn pointed out three distinct advantages of a joint program - in recruiting top neurosurgeons, in expanding research and in training residents. He said the collaboration will result in "the finest training program in neurosurgery in the country." Traber added that Sawaya is the perfect person for the job because of his "collaborative and leadership skills." Sawaya's road to this new role began after he received his medical degree from St. Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon, and completed residencies in general surgery at Upstate Medical Center State University of New York, in pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and in neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He served as chief resident in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Asked why he chose the field of neurosurgery, Sawaya bolted upright and described the "awesome organization of the central nervous system" as if to claim, "who wouldn't be excited?" He likes order and he likes things to be logical. "You are with a patient with a specific neurological problem and by talking to and examining that patient, you can figure out there is one specific point in that person's brain where there is a lesion that correlates exactly to that patient's symptoms. This is organization that you don't often find." The other part of the field that captured his interest is surgery. "A surgeon is someone who wants to fix things and fix things now. It's incredible," he says. "You have a patient with a tumor, you go to surgery, you take the tumor out and do an MRI the next day and the tumor is gone. You get results you can show right away." As chair, Sawaya is responsible for the neurosurgery programs at BCM's primary affiliated hospitals - Ben Taub General Hospital, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital in addition to M. D. Anderson's programs. He is serving as Chief of Service in Neurosurgery at St. Luke's until he recruits a chief for an expanded, comprehensive program at that hospital. In fact, he plans to expand neurosurgical programs at all of BCM's affiliated hospitals. "Each major area of neurosurgical research can and should be developed in a way that has depth, breadth and that will put its mark on the national scene," he said. It's a big project."My Mars project," says Sawaya. |
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Summer 2005 |
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| Last modified: October 10, 2008 |
Ray Sawaya likes a big project.