Cold Steel: Canadian Journal of Surgery Podcast

Paul Fedak is a cardiac surgeon and translational scientist at the University of Calgary. He has written and spoken about what it means to pursue excellence and what it might cost us. Dr. Fedak unexpectedly had to cut short his clinical career as a surgeon due to spinal cord issues. The result has been a powerful exploration about identity, meaning, burnout and the pursuit of excellence. This is a conversation about that pursuit.
Bio: https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/paul-fedak 
Links:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-as-a-heart-surgeon-i-chased-excellence-it-cost-me-my-body-and-my-mind/
http://paulfedak.com/
https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_fedak_beyond_mastery_how_a_heart_surgeon_found_his_own_heart
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-the-mountain-decides-who-goes-and-who-stays

It's that time of year again. Can you sense it? The anticipation, the anxiety, the dread, the wracking of heart and head? Yes, it's almost time for final year Canadian medical students across the country to submit their rank lists to CaRMS.
On this episode we explore the history of CaRMS and the underlying matching algorithms.
We then talk about some of our top tips when building your CaRMS rank list.
What do you think? How did you make your rank list? Send us an email at [email protected].
Links:
Young TA. Teaching medical students to lie. The disturbing contradiction: medical ideals and the resident-selection process. CMAJ. 1997 Jan 15;156(2):219-22. PMID: 9012725; PMCID: PMC1226912. https://pmc-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.queensu.ca/articles/PMC1226912/ 
https://pmc-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.queensu.ca/articles/PMC1226912/
Roth AE. The origins, history, and design of the resident match. JAMA. 2003 Feb 19;289(7):909-12. doi: 10.1001/jama.289.7.909. PMID: 12588278.
https://impact.stanford.edu/article/how-does-applied-economics-maximize-kidney-transplants
Cal Newport’s books: https://calnewport.com/writing/

This Evidence Based Reviews in Surgery (EBRS) webinar was filmed November 2025. This webinar was moderated by Dr. Alison Laws and Dr. Ameer Farooq, and featured panelists Dr. Nicole Culos-Reed, Dr. Christopher Booth and Dr. Bishal Gyawali.
In this EBRS webinar, we discussed Structured Exercise after Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer (Courneya et al., 2025).
Links:
Courneya KS, Vardy JL, O’Callaghan CJ, et al. Structured Exercise after Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2025;393(1):13-25. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2502760

This Evidence Based Reviews in Surgery (EBRS) webinar was filmed July 2025. This webinar was moderated by Dr. Kelly Vogt and Dr. Chad Ball, and featured panelists Dr. Bourke Tillmann and Dr. Emilie Joos.
In this EBRS webinar, we discussed Getting out of the bay faster: Assessing trauma team performance using trauma video review" (Maiga et al., 2024).
Links:
Maiga AW, Vella MA, Appelbaum RD, et al. Getting out of the bay faster: Assessing trauma team performance using trauma video review. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2024;96(1):76-84. doi:10.1097/TA.0000000000004168

This Evidence Based Reviews in Surgery (EBRS) webinar was filmed May 2025. This webinar was moderated by Dr. Alison Laws and Dr. Kerollos Wanis, and featured panelists Dr. Stephanie Wong, Dr. Sarah Knowles and Dr. Rebecca Warburton.
In this EBRS webinar, we discussed Axillary Surgery in Breast Cancer--Primary Results of the INSEMA Trial (Reimer et al., 2024) & Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy vs No Axillary Surgery in Patients With Small Breast Cancer and Negative Results on Ultrasonography of Axillary Lymph Nodes (Gentilini et al., 2023).
Links:
Gentilini, O. D., Botteri, E., Sangalli, C., Galimberti, V., Porpiglia, M., Agresti, R., Luini, A., Viale, G., Cassano, E., Peradze, N., Toesca, A., Massari, G., Sacchini, V., Munzone, E., Leonardi, M. C., Cattadori, F., Di Micco, R., Esposito, E., Sgarella, A., Cattaneo, S., … SOUND Trial Group (2023). Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy vs No Axillary Surgery in Patients With Small Breast Cancer and Negative Results on Ultrasonography of Axillary Lymph Nodes: The SOUND Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA oncology, 9(11), 1557–1564. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.3759
Reimer, T., Stachs, A., Veselinovic, K., Kühn, T., Heil, J., Polata, S., Marmé, F., Müller, T., Hildebrandt, G., Krug, D., Ataseven, B., Reitsamer, R., Ruth, S., Denkert, C., Bekes, I., Zahm, D. M., Thill, M., Golatta, M., Holtschmidt, J., Knauer, M., … Gerber, B. (2025). Axillary Surgery in Breast Cancer – Primary Results of the INSEMA Trial. The New England journal of medicine, 392(11), 1051–1064. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2412063