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Dr. Stephen Cohen is a board-certified general and colorectal surgeon, Section Chief of Surgery at the VA, and an experienced medical expert witness with nearly 30 years in the medicolegal field. We explore what it really means to build a sustainable career in surgery: one that allows surgery to enhance your life rather than consume it.

Dr. Cohen shares why he left more than 20 years in private practice for academic medicine, how financial conflict influenced that decision, and why he believes every physician should consider developing multiple streams of income. We discuss the many career opportunities available outside of direct patient care, including medical expert witness work, utilization review, consulting for medical device and pharmaceutical companies, research, and other non-clinical physician roles. He also offers practical advice on how physicians can get started, how to value their expertise, and why it's important to understand both plaintiff and defense work as a medical expert.

We also talk about medical malpractice lawsuits and the emotional toll they take on physicians. Dr. Cohen openly shares his experience of being sued five times, what it was like to be served, how those cases were resolved, and why being named in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) does not define your career. He explains why malpractice litigation is fundamentally adversarial, why the legal system doesn't always reward the truth in the way physicians expect, and what every doctor should know before ever stepping into a deposition or courtroom.

Along the way, we discuss one of the biggest lessons he learned as an expert witness: knowing the medical record better than anyone else. He explains why carefully reviewing the chart, understanding every detail, and studying depositions can make all the difference in litigation. We also explore why a poor outcome does not necessarily mean poor medical care and the single question from a plaintiff attorney that changed the outcome of a malpractice trial despite excellent surgical care.

Our conversation turns to risk management and the everyday habits that protect both patients and physicians. Dr. Cohen shares why thoughtful documentation is so important, why physicians should never argue with colleagues in the medical record, when to involve risk management after complications, and why communication remains one of the most powerful ways to reduce malpractice risk. He also discusses the surprising benefits of giving patients your cell phone number, approaching every patient with a beginner's mind, and asking yourself how you would care for the patient if they were your own parent.

Finally, we reflect on what changes after residency and fellowship, when technical excellence alone is no longer enough and physicians begin redefining success on their own terms. Dr. Cohen shares what he still loves about colorectal surgery, how the specialty has evolved throughout his career, his thoughts on the rising incidence of colorectal cancer, and why every surgeon should build a career that creates freedom, purpose, and longevity, not just more time in the operating room.

Whether you're interested in medical malpractice, becoming a medical expert witness, physician consulting, utilization review, physician burnout, career diversification, or building multiple streams of income as a doctor, this conversation is filled with practical advice and hard-earned wisdom from someone who has successfully navigated every stage of a surgical career.

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Dr. Racheal Peterson joins me to share her journey into neurosurgery, a path she set her sights on before medical school and ultimately made a reality. We talk about her first experiences in the operating room as a medical student and the sense of wonder that comes with being able to truly change a patient's life with surgery.

Our conversation explores what made her residency genuinely formative rather than simply something to survive, the unique "bro nerd" culture of neurosurgery, and the common trap of believing the next milestone will finally make you feel like you've arrived. We also discuss how she discovered an unexpected creative outlet through social media, her experience becoming a mother during training and as a young attending, and how her aspirations, priorities, and communication style have evolved throughout her career.

This is a thoughtful conversation about identity, ambition, growth, and what it means to build a life in surgery that continues to evolve alongside you.

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Check out Behind the Sports Medicine Podcast here and follow them on instagram here.

Dr. Cameron Roth is a fellowship-trained orthopedic doctor specializing in hand, wrist, and upper extremity surgery and co-host of the podcast, Behind the Sports Medicine Podcast.

In this episode we talk about what it actually feels like to finish training and go out into the world as an attending for the first time when the buck stops with you.

We talk about imposter syndrome and the real divide between how men and women experience the culture of surgery, particularly orthopedic surgeons.

We touch on the fallacy of certainty. You train under one attending who tells you there is one right way to do things. Then you rotate to another attending who tells you the same thing about a completely different technique. Both are certain. Both are wrong about their certainty.

We also get into the first complication after training, and how it hits differently than anything you experienced as a resident.

We consider whether being a woman in surgery might be a superpower, or, perhaps, that surgery selects for badass women. The extra scrutiny, the bias, the being underestimated, done consciously, can produce antifragility. Not just toughness. The capacity to grow stronger under pressure. I think every surgeon, regardless of gender, needs to hear this reframe.

We also cover what genuine availability to patients looks like versus the kind that breeds resentment, and what it means to show up for patients from service energy rather than fear.

This one is for every surgeon who has ever stood at the scrub sink before a hard case and wondered why their career doesn't feel like they thought it should.