Perspectives Spring 2015

PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2015 25 ceive such an honor. At the meeting, he described the history of the PA profes- sion in the United States and the role of the thoracic surgery PA in the United States and provided an update on the surgical treatment of lung cancer. Balderson’s highly productive aca- demic career in thoracic surgery at Duke University Medical Center began as a respiratory therapist, during which time he aspired to work in the field of thoracic surgery. He then became a stu- dent in the NSU Fort Lauderdale PA Program in 1996, where he excelled in both the didactic and clinical years of training, earning the Chancellor’s Award upon graduation. He was also awarded a scholarship by the Associa- tion of Physician Assistants in Cardio- vascular Surgery. These awards were instrumental to his acquiring the highly competitive po- sition of PA in the Duke University Medical Center Department of Cardio- thoracic Surgery. At Duke, he initially worked over 100 hours a week learning all facets of preoperative, operative, and postoperative management of cardio- thoracic surgery patients. He then worked solely in thoracic surgery, where he was mentored by Thomas D’Amico, M.D.—a thoracic surgeon who became highly inspirational to Balderson and has been his supervising physician for the last 16 years. Dr. D’Amico developed the use of advanced and minimally invasive tech- niques of thoracic surgery at Duke Uni- versity that are today regarded as clinical standards throughout the world. Not surprisingly, Balderson developed superb skill in assisting Dr. D’Amico to perform technically demanding, innova- tive surgeries. Through small incisions, all of the necessary anatomical struc- tures in the thoracic cavity could be clearly visualized and dissected with special videoscopic techniques. Removal of a lung lobe in this man- ner is called thoracoscopic or VATS lobectomy and results in significantly less postoperative pain and shorter hos- pitalization compared to the traditional highly invasive thoracotomy procedure, which requires direct visualization of tissue and retractors. Balderson and Dr. D’Amico subsequently published papers in prestigious journals of thoracic sur- gery that described the novel procedure and demonstrated its success in the sur- gical treatment of lung cancer. It was very satisfying to Balderson to see significant pain reduction and much speedier recovery among his patients after they underwent minimally invasive surgery. For all of the demonstrated ad- vantages for video-assisted thoracic sur- gery, however, the majority of pulmonary resections performed in the United States were still being per- formed via thoracotomy. In fact, ac- cording to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ database at the time, he noted that only 28 percent of anatomic lung resections were being performed thoracoscopically. Moreover, a study of finishing thoracic surgery residents at the time noted that only 54 percent Balderson instructs Carlos Alberto-Araujo, M.D., of the Brazilian Society of Thoracic Surgeons on how to prepare a tissue block to be used for teaching video-assisted thoracic surgery techniques. Continued on the next page... The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Volume 89, Issue 2, February 2010, Pages 594-597