In this month's UAB Department of Surgery Access & Engagement Spotlight, Dr. Sergio Acuna Mancilla shares his experience as an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Transplantation and the pathway that led him to becoming an academic surgeon.
The Facts
- Dr. Sergio Acuna Mancilla joined UAB as a faculty member in the Division of Transplantation in 2024 and is currently an assistant professor.
- He obtained his medical degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.
- He completed his general surgery residency and Ph.D. in clinical epidemiology at the University of Toronto.
- He completed his fellowship in Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship here at UAB.
In His Words
Dr. Acuna started his journey in medicine in Colombia straight out of high school where he became interested in procedural specialties before stumbling upon surgery. In Colombia’s medical school system, the last year functions like an Acting Internship, so he was able to do an away rotation in Toronto where he decided he wanted to continue training! Moving countries of course came with challenges, but Dr. Acuna used this to his advantage.
Research
Dr. Acuna began doing research in medical school which became an important part of his life and future career. After moving to Toronto, he began 2 years in a basic science lab which he soon realized was not his passion. While working through the Canadian system to apply for residency, he applied for his Masters degree which soon became a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology. During this time, he studied the importance of prior cancer on transplant outcomes using Canada's robust data collection system. Since then, he has not stopped his research and continues to utilize his mentorships from this time in order to answer questions important to transplant surgeons worldwide. When asked about an interesting currently, we discussed patient understanding of transplantation with regards to cancer treatment - especially in a patient population such as in Alabama with low health literacy. He's interested in learning more about what patients and their caregivers really understand about liver transplantation, its effects, and complications.
Residency
Completing surgical residency in Toronto was an entirely different experience than what we see here in the US. Class sizes were large and residents were responsible for approximately 13 sites throughout the city. Residents had little repeated contact as they continually worked with new teams. Dr. Acuna states that the most difficult part of this was gaining trust - when you're always working with new teams, it's hard for others to trust your skill level and you rely on word of mouth... then you hit your senior years and are expected to know how to operate. It's so different than residency here where we take pride in resident interconnection.
Fellowship to Attending
Coming from Toronto, Dr. Acuna was again in a strange spot - he had to take all of the US medical qualifying exams, the US surgical boards, and the Canadian surgical boards in a matter of a few months in order to be prepared for his UAB Transplant Fellowship. If you heard about the number of tests he took, you too would be shocked! His ending of residency functioned as a mini-fellowship in hepatobiliary surgery and he was able to show his skill and independence to the UAB Transplant team here during his faculty early on. Since becoming an attending, he says he has much more free time... to do his elective cases!
Fun Times
In this new-found free time, Dr. Acuna said he hopes to travel more. In the last year, he has gone to Colombia, New York, Miami, and Canada. He hopes to throw a trip to Europe this year as well! He says his favorite place to visit has been Spain and is excited to go back someday.