Perspectives Spring 2015

T PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2015 24 PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT Fort Lauderdale he Physician Assistant (PA) Department is very proud to recognize the many achieve- ments of 1998 alumnus Stafford Scott Balderson, PA-C. Working as a thoracic sur- gery PA at Duke University Medical Center since graduating from NSU, Balderson has been an amazing trailblazer. For example, he became the first PA in general thoracic sur- gery at Duke University Medical Center and then worked with several of his colleagues to establish the Duke Surgical PA Residency Program. At this point in his career, he became more involved in postgraduate surgical train- ing. Along with a former Duke thoracic sur- gery fellow, he developed a novel tissue simulator to facilitate teaching cutting-edge thoracic surgery techniques. With his simula- tor, Balderson has been successful in training many surgeons and physician assistants to perform video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy for surgical treatment of lung cancer. This technique was originally utilized for patients with early-stage lung cancer and currently is utilized for patients with more advanced cancer. As VATS lobec- tomy is minimally invasive, it allows many more lung cancer patients with marginal lung function or complicated comorbidities to be eligible for surgery. Because of his many accomplishments, Balderson was recently invited to give the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Society for Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery for Great Britain and Ireland held in Edin- burgh, Scotland, becoming the first PA to re- STAFFORD SCOTT BALDERSON Promotes Cutting-Edge Techniques in Thoracic Surgery By Pamela Jaffey, M.D., FCAP, Associate Professor Alumni Spotlight Balderson educates Loretta Erhunwassee, M.D., a Duke University thoracic surgery resident, about camera piloting for video-assisted thoracic surgery techniques. “My hope is for physician assistants to make a meaningful impact on the adoption rate of VATS lobectomy by becoming skilled assistants, thereby facilitating the surgeon’s ability to be successful.”