The Cutting Edge is the official member newsletter of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), designed to keep you informed, inspired, and engaged. Each issue delivers timely updates, thought leadership, committee initiatives, educational resources, member achievements, and the latest developments across the world of trauma and acute care surgery.
Whether you're looking for executive updates, advocacy efforts, grant opportunities, program highlights, or perspectives from your peers, The Cutting Edge brings the pulse of AAST directly to your inbox.
Prefer to listen on the go? The Cutting Edge Podcast brings AAST to life with engaging conversations, exclusive interviews, and behind-the-scenes stories from the world of trauma and acute care surgery.
In this episode of the AAST Cutting Edge Podcast, host Dr. Caroline Park sits down with Dr. Jennifer Hartwell for an open, candid conversation about career transitions, professional identity, and sustaining yourself in academic surgery. Dr. Hartwell reflects on the moves that shaped her career, including one she made not for opportunity but for her own wellbeing, and why knowing when to leave a situation is just as important as knowing when to stay.
The conversation covers how to find your niche without forcing it, why asking residents about their five-year plan may be doing more harm than good, and how academic surgery will need to evolve to meet the values of the next generation of surgeons. Dr. Hartwell and Dr. Park also take on AI in medicine head-on, exploring where it genuinely improves efficiency, where it erodes the things that matter most, and how educators have a responsibility to set expectations before trainees set their own. If you have ever felt the tension between the career you planned and the one you are actually living, this episode is for you.
Tune in to Front Line Surgery: Mastering Military Trauma Care, a podcast dedicated to military trauma care. Each episode features expert military surgeons sharing real-world cases and battlefield-ready strategies.
Browse the archive and stay current with the evolving landscape of trauma surgery.
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