Douglas Wood Elected as CTSNet President

CTSNet is excited to announce that Douglas E. Wood has been elected to the office of CTSNet President. Dr. Wood previously served on the CTSNet Board of Directors as Secretary and Treasurer; he is a former President of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the current President of The Thoracic Surgery Foundation. He recently shared his thoughts on CTSNet and the start of his presidency.

As your term begins, what are your plans for CTSNet?

Dr. Wood: I think CTSNet continues to be the primary website for connecting the global cardiothoracic community. We’re working together within CTSNet to continue providing high-quality content and specialty-related news, and trying to make CTSNet easily accessible and usable for cardiothoracic surgeons and their teams internationally.

CTSNet recently adopted a new mission: “Connect the global cardiothoracic community.” Why was it important to revisit the mission?

Dr. Wood: The CTSNet officers and Board of Directors re-evaluated the mission, and felt that we needed a very memorable and concise statement of what the purpose of CTSNet is, which is to "Connect the global cardiothoracic community." This has always been a part of the mission, but we wanted to make it crystal clear to cardiothoracic surgeons and their teams across the globe. “Connection” is important because we really see CTSNet as a way for surgeons and their team members to connect with each other. “Global” is important because CTSNet is the only truly global organization for cardiothoracic surgeons, and we want to emphasize and build on that. “Community” was a term that we chose to represent that CTSNet is not just for the surgeons, it’s also for the rest of the team of people caring for patients with cardiothoracic disease.

How has CTSNet evolved over the years?

Dr. Wood: When CTSNet was initially created, it was really in the early stages of the Internet. I think that it was very pioneering of cardiothoracic surgeons to create this initial web-based enterprise for content and connecting cardiothoracic surgeons. It makes me reflect on Dr. Bob Replogle, who was really the force behind the development of CTSNet during his leadership of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. It’s especially poignant in that Dr. Replogle, who was leader in many ways, passed away last year and we all miss him. I think he would be proud to see how we have evolved to be an organization that has tens of thousands of cardiothoracic surgeons and allied health members connected across the globe. It’s hard to imagine that he could have envisioned the success, breadth, and impact of CTSNet when he created it.