Dr. Sean Evans is a pediatric otolaryngologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery of Emory University School of Medicine. His areas of expertise include microtia, cleft and speech surgery, vascular anomalies, and endoscopic ear surgery.
Dr. Evans started creating content for CSurgeries in 2020 after the platform sparked his interest as a ‘one stop shop’ for high quality surgical video content that could be readily reviewed, “As a resident and trainee, I desired high quality surgical videos to expound my understanding of complex surgical techniques that I would read about in surgical texts.”
Dr. Evans finds the process of creating surgical videos very straightforward as it involves just a few steps, “I review my surgical cases for any less common or more interesting cases that may be beneficial for others to learn from. I record the surgery and upload it to my laptop. I then use iMovie to edit the videos into the ‘need to know’ steps and create an audio voiceover to describe what is happening on screen. After this, it is typically submission ready.“
While he occasionally encounters minor challenges in completing his videos due to his busy schedule, Dr. Evans shares that he finds motivation by looking back to his trainee days.
“Remembering back to when I was a trainee though, I’m re-invigorated to move forward with the creation process. I also try to find the time to do it in one sitting. As much is asked of us as academic surgeons, I find the best way to tackle the project is to do as much as possible in the initial editing.”
The process of producing surgical videos has paid off not just for Dr. Evans but also his mentees.
“My learners routinely comment that they use my content for surgical case prep which is amazing to hear!” He notes, adding, “Each successful publication on CSurgeries has motivated me to create more content. They are good for a young physician like myself trying to gain traction in the field and look good as well come promotion time through an organization.”
For surgeons and medical students who would like to create surgical videos on CSurgeries, he urges them to take on the challenge, “The first step is the hardest. Find a case you’re proud of, think of what others can learn from, and want to share and sit down and do it!”
Dr. Evans envisions that surgical videos will play more of a role in medical education especially for a generation who grew up in an age where information is just one tap away, “With evolving modalities for recording and editing videos and graphics, I feel the future of surgical education is becoming more digitized. CSurgeries will be poised to be a leader in this space as a new generation of physicians who grew up on their devices searches for alternatives to classic texts and papers for elucidating surgical technique and efficiency.”
