A surgeon’s life is defined by long hours, exacting focus, and countless critical decisions that impact the lives of others. They go through years of training to develop a stamina that can sustain the deepest, complex pressures. But just like the rest of us, they rely on small rituals and routines to keep their days steady, mind sharp, and energy plugging along.
In Routine Procedures, we’re taking a closer look at the daily habits—from breakfast choices to favorite shoes—that shape our surgeons’ work and life.
Tall Zoom Energy, NYT Puzzles, and Dinner at Home
Katherine Fischkoff, MD
Chief, Division of General Surgery
Executive Vice Chair for Operations, Department of Surgery
What time does your alarm go off in the morning?
5:25.
Snooze or no snooze?
Snooze, but I don’t let it run all the way down to the end.
Breakfast of choice (especially before a big day)?
I don’t eat breakfast before I leave the house because I wake up at 5:25. So I save it for mid-morning. And usually I’m so hungry by then that I eat lunch.
I always try to make lunch, because otherwise it’s eating sad salad. Although I have discovered how to make salads not so sad. So, I’ll either try to make my own lunch and bring it, or La Placita makes a really good burrito, like really good.
First thing you do when you get to work:
It depends on whether I’m early. If I’m early, I try to get through the New York Times word puzzles. Because then all of a sudden it’s 10:30 pm and you’re about to go to bed and it’s, “Oh my God, I didn’t do Wordle.” And that’s bad. You can’t do Wordle well as you’re falling asleep.
But my actual morning routine is to get to work, drop in on my kid’s Alexas to make sure they’re awake and moving along, and then I can work.
Do you have any pre-op rituals or routines?
No, I don’t. I’m not a superstitious person. It’s just your preparation.
What music is in your OR?
I let the OR pick the music. I’m fairly agnostic on music as long as they’re not screaming.
Favorite shoes for long days standing in the OR:
For a while I tried the Calzuros, those plasticky ones, and I just went back to Danskos. They are a classic for a reason. They are very supportive.
Favorite part of your day:
I love the moments in between all of the work. I was telling an observing student yesterday that the reason my job is so great is because I get to save lives, but in between, I’m hanging out with my friends, and we’re basically wearing pajamas, hanging out on each other’s couches. That’s the best.
And then you go save a life, and then you're back to hanging out with your friend again. And you’re wearing comfortable shoes.
Any non-medical habit that helps you stay focused?
The New York Times puzzles. I’m, you know, 10 points from Genius, but I still don’t have a pangram.
Most underrated part of your job:
I just got the role of medical director of peri-op services, and so much goes on behind the scenes with compliance and regulatory stuff that, on the surface, is box-checking—and it kind of is—but it’s really important box-checking.
Now that I’m seeing the behind-the-scenes, it’s just a mountain of work that I never appreciated. How much work goes into your operating room being in compliance, and the level of detail they attend to, you would never imagine. That’s the mundane part of the work, but it is much more relevant, much more challenging than I would have appreciated.
When you finally get home, what’s the first thing you do?
I make dinner. I say hi to the kids, but that’s how I show my love for my family.
Eating dinner together as a family is really important to me because, especially as my kids get older, everybody’s got their own things going on. This one’s in soccer and that one has a job. So it’s important to me that we have a chunk of uninterrupted time together.
Making dinner and making sure that we’re all together for even half an hour—sometimes that’s all I get—but that is important to me.
If one of your patients saw you outside the hospital, they’d be surprised to see you…
Oh no, I have no idea. People who only ever see me on Zoom are surprised in person that I’m shorter than they think. You know how some people are much taller than you think? Apparently I’m one of those people who looks tall on Zoom but is, in fact, quite short.
More routines:
James Lee, MD
Chief of Endocrine Surgery
Abe Krikhely, MD
Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Bariatric Surgery
Roshni Rao, MD
Chief of Breast Surgery
John Chabot, MD
Chief of GI/Endocrine Surgery
Executive Director of the Pancreas Center
Jason Hawksworth, MD
Surgical Director, Adult Liver Transplantation
Chief of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Division of Abdominal Organ Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery
Emile A. Bacha, MD
Chair, Department of Surgery
Surgeon-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center
Virendra I. Patel, MD, MPH
Chief of Vascular Surgery
Co-Director of Aortic Center
Christine H. Rohde, MD, MPH
Chief, Division of Plastic Surgery
Chief of Microvascular Services
Vincent Pierre Duron, MD
Pediatric Surgeon
Thomas A. Imahiyerobo, MD
Director, Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery
Section Chief, Pediatric Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Francisco Guzman, MD
Bariatric Surgeon
Beth A. Schrope, MD, PhD
Pancreatic Surgeon
Director, Autologous Islet Cell Transplantation Program