A Word from Dr. Maas
"There is a long, time-honored tradition in medicine of sharing your knowledge with the next generation. After finishing medical school and a medical internship, there are another four to seven years of general post-surgery internship training. Still, there is only so much you can learn from books and articles about medicine, especially regarding surgery. The importance of hand-eye coordination and mechanical-cerebral coordination in surgery cannot be overstated.
"I am very proud to have taught for 12 years at UCSF, sharing my knowledge with residents and medical students, and I have worked with fellows for the past 23 years. With all my fellows, outstanding academic credentials are a given. My fellows are fully credentialed at the hospital and surgery centers we use and are either plastic surgery trained or head and neck surgery trained after their medical internship.
"They all come to me specifically to learn how to perform facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and research in the field, which is an integral part of advancing our understanding and the science behind what we do. I hope all my fellows become fellowship directors in the future and join me in sharing their knowledge with the next generation. Each fellow brings something new to the practice. Their curiosity, ideas, and questions all challenge me and help me refine my decision-making, helping me become a better surgeon.
"As part of their training, my fellows assist in the pre and post-operative care of our patients and assist me in surgery. I must emphasize that they don’t perform the surgery; they only assist as a surgical technician would, learning by watching and assisting me. Every year, I ask my fellows to write a little bio of themselves, talking about where they came from, their academic background, how they knew they wanted to be a doctor, and why they chose to pursue facial plastic surgery, saving a precious snapshot of their goals for posterity."
