Camaraderie is always among the top three things that members say sets SAGES apart from other societies. For Dr. Dave Renton, camaraderie also means, “Whenever I reach out to SAGES members for help on a project, I’ve never heard no for an answer. Everyone wants to help for the good of the group, which is a rare find in a surgical society.”
As a longtime SAGES member, Dr. Renton has no doubt had a lot of help with his many projects as part of a number of committees, including Guidelines, Publications, Communications, RPS, DEI and now as chair of the TAVAC Committee.
Over the years he’s helped edit four SAGES manuals and, with TAVAC, published several informational papers on products that MIS surgeons use every day, including: Transitioning to Practice from the SAGES Video Library; The SAGES Manual of Strategy and Leadership – SAGES; The SAGES Manual of Fluorescence-Guided Surgery – SAGES; and The SAGES Manual of Acute Care Surgery – SAGES
One of his memorable experiences was seeing the Transitioning to Practice manual through from beginning to end. “We came up with an idea, found authors for the chapters, and got it done within a year. The relationships I made doing this project are people I still keep in touch with today. SAGES was completely supportive of this project, showing that if you have an idea that will help the group, they will support you.”
Dr. Renton says he “loved MIS surgery from the beginning of my residency and I wanted to pursue it as a focus of my career.” He credits his fellowship director Dr. Scott Melvin for being instrumental in teaching him how to be a good MIS surgeon.
In the spirit of paying it forward, Dr. Renton says his main goal is to “help those who are just starting out their careers avoid some of the mistakes those of us who have been doing this a while have made in our pasts.”
To support that, Dr. Renton is leading a new RPS project, Ask SAGES, a Q&A column designed to tackle questions from younger surgeons. Ask SAGES will appear in regularly in SAGES monthly newsletter MesSAGES with a panel of experts offering advice on a number of issues, including contract negotiations; financing and growing a practice; billing issues; practice dynamics; optimal APP usage; researching funding opportunities, litigation questions; and, finding a job/what to ask for when getting hired.
As for free time, Dr. Renton’s five kids currently take up most of his non-OR time and, if he’s lucky, they’ll join him to hike or fish.