Surgical residents in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences already receive top-flight training.
But as of this fall, they’re also benefitting from the chance to hear more insights from further afield, thanks to the vision and generosity of a McGill Medicine alumnus.
A new biennial lecture series has been established through a generous gift to the Faculty from Dr. Sam Labow, BSc’58, MDCM’62.
The Sam Labow MD Lecture in General Surgery will allow the faculty to invite notable speakers in general surgery to share their expertise with surgeons-in-training at McGill. The lecture series kicked off virtually on September 30 with inaugural speaker Dr. Patricia Sylla, from Mount Sinai in New York. Dr. Sylla is an innovator in the surgical treatment of colon and rectal cancer.
“This is my thank you note to McGill for what they did for me,” says Labow, a retired colorectal surgeon, who attended the online inaugural lecture.
“I think it’s an incredible asset for a medical school to be able to invite outside people with different or new perspectives to give lectures to residents and medical students. That’s the whole purpose of it.
“When you don’t have this happening, you become very insular in your thinking.”
Dr. Liane Feldman, Chair of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Surgeon-in-Chief of the McGill University Health Centre, calls Dr. Labow’s gift, and the lecture series it creates, a real boon to the faculty.
“We’re deeply grateful to Dr. Labow for enabling us to create this enriching learning opportunity for our medical students and general surgery residents, in particular,” Feldman says. “The Visiting Professorship will give them opportunities to interact with leading surgeons from all over the world. One of the huge advantages of being at a place like McGill is the ability to welcome inspiring speakers. I personally recall several visitors that have had a major impact on my career.
“This kind of experience is priceless and may have lasting impact, in terms of the relationships and connections that are built, in addition to the knowledge that is gained,” Feldman says.
Labow, who lives in Vermont, grew up in Montreal, the son of a pharmacist who also graduated from McGill.
In his generation, Labow says: “if you were going to go to college, you went to McGill, period, unless you couldn’t get in.”
No one left town to go to college or medical school unless there was something that interrupted their flow patterns, he adds. “We were getting a great education at next to no cost. Plus, it wasn’t part of our DNA back then to leave town.”
After completing residencies at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and the Ottawa Civic Hospital, he headed stateside for more training and became a colorectal surgeon. He worked on Long Island, N.Y., where his wife Michelle, a former O.R. supervisor, ran the practice he shared with three other doctors.
His mentor in colorectal surgery told Labow his speciality would be very good to him – “and I would need to pay back. And I have spent a large part of my career doing that,” Labow says. “He didn’t mean it from an economic point of view at all… [I think he just meant] if you work for the speciality, you will be acknowledged by the speciality as having contributed.”
Labow devoted much time and effort to representing his speciality in national forums. That included serving as secretary and then president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and as chairman of the Advisory Council for Colon and Rectal Surgery at the American College of Surgeons.
“All of this is called giving back. It is simple, two words: giving back to my university, giving back to my specialty. Both have treated me very well.”