Dr. Louis Kavoussi entitled his speech "Everything You Know is Wrong." Kavoussi's speech, the fourth in the spring lecture series "Voyage and Discovery," emphasizes the importance of questioning what you have been taught.
Dr. Kavoussi, the current Patrick C. Walsh Distinguished Professor of Urology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Vice Chairman of the Department of Urology, focused on a surgical standpoint. He urged, "Always question the dogma, always question what you've been taught, because that's how science is improved."
Kavoussi first discussed his path to medicine, which he didn't choose as a profession till his early twenties. Kavoussi was raised in Brooklyn and majored in chemistry as an undergraduate at Columbia University.
His father, a doctor, told him to apply to medical school and he would pay for it, so Kavoussi did.
He now calls medicine "the most rewarding profession" but was unsure that it was for him until his second year in medical school when he took an introduction to clinical medicine class.
He completed his residency at Washington University in St. Louis and taught at Harvard Medical School before coming to Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1993.
Kavoussi's main medical focus is minimally invasive urological surgery where he pioneered laparoscopic urological surgery. He urged the audience to "choose important problems" and that "it all boils down to the basics."
Kavoussi's basic problem in his research was trying to cause less pain and secondary problems because of surgery. He said the most important value to remember in research was that it "is not about you."
Although his work in laparoscopy was important, he said that "if you're going to change the field of surgery, it has to be something everyone can do," and not just people who have "magical hands" for surgery.
It was through his pursuit to make laparoscopy universal that he first started to work with computers, robots and telecommunications.
Kavoussi was involved in the creation of the first FDA approved surgical robot.
Using robotics in surgery was seen as dangerous at times and he hit many road blocks, both from hospitals, other doctors and insurance companies, when his new technology was tried on patients.
"It is very hard to walk against the crowd," Kavoussi said, advising students to take risks and not follow trends.
Kavoussi ended with encouragement, saying that doctors should enjoy themselves. "Academic medicine is a lot of fun," Kavoussi said with a smile.
