This week, the UAB Department of Surgery is highlighting former Endocrine Surgery Fellow, Sophie Dream, M.D., who graduated the program in 2019.
The AAES Endocrine Surgery Fellowship at UAB is a one-year clinical fellowship that provides extensive exposure to standard and advanced/minimally invasive techniques in endocrine surgery, medical endocrinology, pathology, ultrasonography and laryngoscopy. It is a unique program in that fellows get dedicated operative and research experience time.
As a fellow, Dream was able to work with Program Director Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP, FACS, to craft her fellowship to mirror her particular passions and specialties, participating in outcomes health services research a couple of days a week and serving a robust clinical practice. Now, Dream said she is applying what she learned during her fellowship at UAB to her current career as an assistant professor in the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Department of Surgery.
“We are very proud of Dr. Dream,” said Lindeman. “She was a highly-motivated fellow while at UAB, and she continues to make wonderful strides in her career as an academic surgeon. We are not at all surprised by her impact and success and are proud to call her a graduate of our program.”
In November 2020, Dream started a Thyroid Nodule Radiofrequency Ablation program at MCW from the ground up and was the first person in the midwest, outside of the Mayo Clinic, to champion the treatment program. The treatment is designed for benign thyroid nodules that are overproducing thyroid hormone or for patients may want removed more for functional or cosmetic reasons. During treatment, the provider delivers radiofrequency waves to heat up the thyroid nodules and cause them to shrink, so there is no surgery required for the procedure.
Providers in Italy and Korea have been offering the procedure for some time, but Dream is one of the first to adopt the treatment in the U.S. She now acts as a radiofrequency ablation consult for other providers and physicians learning about the treatment option who will visit her for on-the-job observations.
Most recently, Dream performed the first retroperitoneoscopic robotic adrenalectomy at Milwaukee Veteran’s Affairs Hospital. The novel, minimally-invasive performance of a more common surgery demonstrates Dream’s motivation to always look for ways to improve patient experiences and outcomes.
“I do think that my foundation at UAB helped me to have a strong, more advanced starting place than most recent graduates in my field,” said Dream. “My existing foundation allowed me to come into the Medical College of Wisconsin and partake in more novel clinical procedures, right off the bat.”
If Dream was not busy enough starting new programs and championing new clinical techniques, she is also pursuing her master of public health at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She sees this as an opportunity to grow her research, which is focused on outcomes and health services.
“The next area of my career that I will focus on is my body of endocrine surgery research,” said Dream. “I believe that this MPH will give me a more holistic understanding of my field from a public health standpoint and will improve my research topics, studies and application.”