We compiled a list of innovative surgeons from the social media platform LinkedIn and invited them into SoMeDocs for an interview.
Our first featured surgeon is Dr. Ryan Kerstein, who describes himself as: Consultant Plastic Surgeon | Innovation Lead for Royal College of Surgeons of England I-Hub | Co- founder of ASep Healthcare Ltd | Editor of RCS Eng Bulletin Journal
Before our questions, who is Dr. Ryan Kerstein?
Dr. Kerstein is a Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, and Associate Medical Director for Innovation & Research at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, working to foster a culture of innovation in future clinicians. He leads the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s I-Hub. He is also the co- founder of ASep Healthcare Ltd. and created Tournistrip, a single use Tourniquet which has sold over 75 million units worldwide.
Dr. Kerstein, what made you pursue medicine?
I’ve got a typical personal anecdote, as many medics do. When my younger brother was born prematurely, he had to be placed in the neonatal intensive care unit. I was 5 at the time. I remember distinctly telling the paediatrician at his discharge, “Thank you for saving my brother in the goldfish bowl (his incubator). One day, I want to become like you”.
And I never wavered from my promise.
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Why surgery, and why plastic surgery?
Initially, I was interested in paediatrics, after my personal experience of paediatrics during my brother’s time in hospital. But as medical school went on, I realised my mind was more suited for surgical specialties. I like that patients come in with a specific problem, and as a surgeon you devise and deliver a solution. Also, as a dyslexic, drug names terrified me.
In terms of choosing plastic surgery, it all happened funnily enough because of an admin error. Two weeks before I started my second year of foundation rotations, I received an email from the Post-Graduate team that read ‘Plastic Surgery” instead of “General Surgery”. So, I had my first taste of plastic surgery due to a system error.
This was 4 months at the end of FY2. I then started my ENT Core Training which started with another 4 months of Plastic Surgery.
So, after 8 months of Plastic Surgery experience under my belt, I realised I loved it, and here we are.
"Thank you for saving my brother in the goldfish bowl (his incubator). One day, I want to become like you." - Dr. Ryan Kerstein
What do you love most about your work?
I love the variety. Plastic Surgery is one of the broadest specialities, including burns, hand trauma, reconstruction, and cleft surgery amongst others. My work currently focuses on skin cancer, but I love the fact that I get to meet phenomenal people of all age groups. I think plastics is the most exciting surgical specialty; both, with the operations you get to do, as well as the people you meet.
I’m also really lucky as I have been given the opportunity to have a portfolio career. I have my clinical roles, but I also lead the Health Innovation work at both my hospital Trust and the Royal College of Surgeons. I also absolutely love mixing my clinical with innovation worlds. My aim is to encourage more surgeons and clinicians to take initiative and embrace a culture of innovation.
What is Tournistrip, and what made you create it?
As med students back in the early 2000s, we were often asked to cannulate and take bloods. At the time the only options were a fabric re-usable tourniquet or a rubber glove. The thing is it would take ages to find a re-usable tourniquet, as it would either be in our white coats or in the Ward Sisters’ desk, and even when you found it, it would often be very stained and old. In fact, we did a research project and found a third were contaminated with staphylococcus, including MRSA. So, I thought it would be best to create something new.
The first task was finding a material to build single use tourniquets out of. We wanted something easy to use, comfortable and cost effective. I say this to anyone in the clinical world who has a pinch point and wants to innovate – seek inspiration from another industry. And I did exactly that. We created a tourniquet using inspiration from wrist bands used at events and festivals, those made of the papery material… We set-up a company, raised funding and started selling. It is now used globally, and we’ve now sold over 75 million internationally. We were also used at the 2012 Olympic Games; I claim we were therefore the Official Tourniquet of the 2012 Games.
Creating Tournistrip was particularly important to me, as it was my gateway into front line driven innovation. I still remember the first time I walked onto a ward and saw my tourniquet being used by a colleague to take blood.
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How did you balance innovation alongside your clinical work?
With difficulty, and a very understanding other half. I created Tournistrip much before the current supportive infrastructure for clinician entrepreneurs existed. At the time, as a surgeon, any entrepreneurial side activity was looked down upon. I was even discouraged from mentioning it on my CV. But through a huge drive to solve problems working at weekends and a good support network around me, it became successful. I’m also happy to say that this old culture has now changed, and there is much more support available for entrepreneurial clinicians, which is amazing. Huge credit needs to go to people like Prof Tony Young, who set up the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Network.
Why do you use Linkedin? What do you mainly use LinkedIn for?
LinkedIn is good because it has both long form text and photos, but it’s still easy to share knowledge. I also really like that no one is anonymous, so conversations stay professional. It’s also a great social media platform for separating personal and professional. I used to use Twitter a lot, but now I find it unsatisfying and hard to follow threads of conversation.
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What are your goals for the future?
I have a few roles within my Trust, Buckinghamshire NHS Trust. We have just launched our new initiative called the BRAIn LAB (Buckinghamshire Research and Innovation Lab). This is our purpose-built innovation space with 3D printers, extended reality headsets and a virtual reality radiology hub. I want Bucks to become the go to place for med- tech activity, and we’re making progress, having just won a spot on the NHS InSites Programme for healthcare innovation.
Otherwise, I want to work towards increasing the culture and awareness of the “surgical innovator” and reach a point where we encourage and grow more clinician innovators in the NHS. I see this as a win-win-win. It supports patients by delivering better care, supports the NHS by ensuring that care is quick, cheaper and more effective, and finally means we retain the best and brightest that may be tempted to leave medicine.
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What advice would give to medical students/ someone pursuing medicine?
We hear a lot of ABCD in medicine, but my philosophy is an alternative version of ABCD:
Always Be Connecting Dots.
Never accept problems and moan about it. Instead, figure out how can you deal with the problem. See how other departments have tackled it or other hospital or even other industries and bring the idea into your work. On your journey, find your tribe. Support one another.
"We hear a lot of ABCD in medicine, but my philosophy is an alternative version of ABCD: Always Be Connecting Dots." - Dr. Ryan Kerstein
How can people contact you best with requests/ queries?
If you’re looking to have an informal chat, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn or X. I’m usually quite good with my replies, and I’ve helped several start-ups and scale ups just through someone reaching out to me on these platforms. So don’t be afraid to send that DM!
If you’re looking for some more formal guidance on innovation, I’d definitely recommend reading the Royal College of Surgeons Future of Surgery Report, and follow the activity of the I-Hub, and come and pitch at our next Innovation clinic.
On LinkedIn: Ryan Kerstein
On X: @ryan_l_k
