Leading During Chaos: from the operating room to COVID-19 with Dr. Steve Stylianos

Leading the Rounds

In this episode, we interview Dr. Steven Stylianos. Dr. Stylianos serves Columbia University as the Rudolph N Schullinger Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery. He is currently the Surgeon-in-Chief of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/New York Presbyterian.

A graduate of Rutgers University and the New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Stylianos completed his general surgical training at Columbia–Presbyterian Medical Center. He subsequently spent two years as the Trauma Fellow at the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute in Boston and then completed his formal pediatric surgery training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Stylianos joined the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Children’s Hospital of New York in 1992. He organized and directed the 50-member team of physicians and nurses who separated conjoined twins in 1993, 1995, 2000 and 2020. These conjoined twins separations attracted the attention of the national media, including Dateline NBC, CBS 48 Hours and Fox News.

Throughout the years, Dr. Stylianos has served as Chairman of the Trauma Committee for the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) from 1997–2002 and authored the APSA position paper supporting all measures to reduce the toll of firearm violence in children. He also served as the Co-Principal Investigator of the U.S. Department of Health, Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s grant to APSA “Partnership for Development and Dissemination of Outcomes Measures for Injured Children.”

Currently, Dr. Stylianos is a site verification officer of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and was recently elected to serve on the American Pediatric Surgical Association Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery and served on the Executive Board as a founding member of the Pediatric Trauma Society. Dr Stylianos recently received the prestigious American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association’s 2016 Champions Award and the American Trauma Society’s 2016 NY State Trauma Medical Director of Distinction.

And most importantly, Dr Stylianos and his wife Joann are proud first-time grandparents to to their grandson Nico.

In this episode, we discuss what it was like to lead a team who separated conjoined twins, how he handles leadership in the OR, and his experience in the epicenter of COVID-19 in New York.
Questions we asked include:

• What are your current leadership roles and what do you feel were the experiences that led you to them?
• What was it like to lead the team that separated conjoined twins?
• What is your mindset in the OR when things don’t go as you planned?
• Tell us about the first few days of the pandemic for you. What was it like to be presented with this challenge?
• Were there any lessons you took as a leader in the OR to role as a leader in administration?
• What are your pieces of advice to developing medical leaders?
• What is your process of reflecting on failure?
• What two of your favorite books that you would recommend to young medical leaders?
  • His suggestions: "Farsighted" by Steven Johnson & "The Splendid and the Vile" by Eric Larson