When Dr. Marian McDonald joined SAGES as a resident in 1995, she remembers “this new cool society doing avant garde surgeries.” Today she adds that SAGES has evolved into a “community of members always looking out for each other while putting innovation and compassionate patient care first.”
Over the years as an active member, Dr. McDonald has increased her own sense of community by attending SAGES annual meetings, where she also oversees SAGES humanitarian efforts. She has been active on many SAGES committees, most recently serving on Education Council, Ethics, Global and Safe Chole. She worked closely with Dr. Michael Brunt and Dr. Daniel Deziel on the Bile Duct Injury Consensus Conference and the BDI Consensus Paper published in Surgical Endoscopy and Annals of Surgery.
Along with Dr. Brunt, who Dr. McDonald says “really allowed me to blossom at SAGES,” she counts her SAGES mentors as former SAGES president Dr. Jo Buyske, who was her fellow while she was a resident at Boston’s Lahey Clinic, and Drs. Vic Velanovich and Tonia Young-Fadok.
A graduate of the Penn State College of Medicine, Dr. McDonald has been a general surgeon with the St. Luke’s University Health Network for more than 20 years and is a clinical professor (adjunct) at the Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine. In addition to her work with SAGES, Dr. McDonald is passionate about actively living the SAGES mission to innovate, educate and collaborate to improve patient care. Throughout her career, she’s participated in many medical projects and traveled extensively to other countries, including Africa, Haiti and Peru, sharing her surgical expertise and knowledge as a way to help resource poor countries.
For Dr. McDonald, it’s all about “science, innovation and technology for the greater good of our patients. Being a SAGES member always motivates me to keep going and stay current so I can be the best surgeon possible.”