Dr. Yaron Moshel: “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became a Doctor”

Acknowledge your mistakes and always do your best. A lot of doctors are unnecessarily practicing defensive medicine. But if you acknowledge your mistakes instead of hiding from them, it’s unlikely that you’ll be caught up in a lawsuit. Medicine is an imperfect art.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Yaron Moshel.

Dr. Yaron Moshel, MD, is a neurosurgeon and co-director of The Gerald J. Glasser Brain Tumor Center at Overlook Medical Center’s Atlantic Neuroscience Institute. He specializes in advanced surgical techniques for removal of complex benign and malignant brain and spine tumors and has been an investigator on several national Phase II-III brain tumor clinical trials. Additionally, Dr. Moshel is actively involved in the training and mentoring of neurosurgical residents and serves as a reviewer for the Scientific Program Committee of the AANS Tumor Section.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better.

Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I was born in Israel, where my parents were refugees from the country of Georgia. When I was young, my family moved to a studio apartment in Queens, New York City. Because there was a nursing shortage when we applied to come to the United States, the immigration process may have been helped by the fact that my mother was a nurse. We are a true Ellis Island story. Now that I have kids of my own, I have no idea how my parents had the courage to do anything like that. Education was always really important in my family. Despite the financial hardships, they always insisted that all the kids do well in school and pursue higher education. We lived in a tight-knit Jewish community, which provided a lot of support and exposure to many different cultures. When it came time to apply for college, I think I only applied to two schools because it was pretty clear that no one was moving far from home — we all stuck together. It was the same for medical school and my residency. I did all my training at New York University (NYU).

The fact that my mother was a nurse may have influenced my interest in science and medicine. My interest in neurology began in college, where I majored in neuroscience, which was a new major at the time. I was always interested in the interplay between consciousness and the wiring of the brain, so studying neuroscience was a natural fit for me. After graduation, I attended medical school, where I did an MD/PhD program. As a result of doing research in neurophysiology, I realized that I enjoyed the clinical side of medicine more than being cooped up in a lab. Instead I discovered the clinical side, and fell in love with neurosurgery, especially brain surgery — and even brain tumor surgery, which is what I specialize in now, understanding the anatomy of the brain and how the connections translate to how a patient functions in the world. Surgery also allowed me to bring in things I had learned about neuroscience and neurophysiology, like electrical mapping of the brain. I went on to do a residency and fellowship in neurosurgery. After that, I became an assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University. However, Philadelphia was a little too far away from my family. We wanted to be closer to New York, which is how we landed at Atlantic Health System.

Since joining Atlantic Health System, I’ve helped to launch the brain tumor center, part of which involved recruiting a team to contribute to the center: neuro-oncologists, social workers and navigators. As you dive into the world of brain cancer, it quickly becomes very humbling. You realize that neurosurgery, however complicated it might be, just doesn’t matter when you are speaking with patients and their families after surgery: they still have to deal with the diagnosis. So getting people the support they need — building the team to help patients, rather than focusing on the surgical aspect, became the next phase of what I did.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?

We have recruited a neuro-oncologist who has been helping to develop Atlantic Health System’s clinical trial portfolio. He’s a visionary with new techniques and ideas for clinical trials in brain cancer. The most interesting of these surrounds the idea of immunotherapy for brain tumors: trying to harness the power of the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer. It’s an idea that’s been around for a while and, although there have been lots of ups and downs, it’s gaining more traction and momentum. The most recent project is a trial for a brain tumor vaccine, and we’re all very excited and eager to see how that does.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My PhD mentor was an older British scientist whose education in post-war England offered little in the way of funding for basic research. Because of that, he naturally thought every experiment through in exacting detail. To pick exactly the right strategic experiment to prove or disprove a theory, he would mentally go through the next 10 steps of what might happen. That taught me a lot about how to not only approach science, but how to logically think through experiments. He remains memorable because, no matter what you were doing — conducting surgery, or putting electrodes inside an animal brain –he always took a break in the afternoon to drink tea and chat. Because of him, I still take a tea break.

Another person I had the privilege of working with is Pat Kelly (Patrick J. Kelly, FACS), a famous brain cancer surgeon at NYU School of Medicine– a brilliant and inspirational figure. He taught me a lot including how to remove brain tumors and how to think in 3D. Because of his humble beginnings, he valued people for who they are regardless of whether they were poor or a VIP, which was a valuable lesson early in my career. In fact, he treated the poorest patients the best. He is someone I think about all the time.

Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?

It’s difficult to choose because I’ve always loved to read, but I find myself often drawn to historical fiction as both an escape and a way to learn more about the past.

How have you used success to bring goodness to the world?

Something that I remind myself of every day is that in medicine you are taking care of people and you can’t forget it. And it’s not just that you can’t forget, it’s that the only way to be successful is to come back to that core principle because it’s so easy to get caught up in the complexities of healthcare. If you don’t actually step back and pretend that you’re in the shoes of a patient, you’re not going to be successful. Some of the most innovative ideas in medicine come from people who are able to ignore the complexities and get right to the root of the issue, which is “What does this mean to me if I’m the patient?” By putting yourself in the patient’s shoes you have to think of things as seemingly insignificant as the process patients have to go through to make an appointment: how many phone calls they have to make or how many people they have to speak to or how many forms they have to fill out. It’s important to learn how to cut through the clutter by asking “What are we trying to do and why?” That lesson applies not only to the medical bureaucracy, but to how we deliver care.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?

It would be “We are all just people,” and “treat everyone with respect.” I actually do think about that all the time. When you are a medical student or a young resident — or a patient — you can be intimidated by figures like department chairs or hospital presidents, but you can’t get hung up on title and stature. We are all just people and these titles don’t mean anything in the big picture.

Can you share your top three “lifestyle tweaks” that will help people feel great?

Exercise more. In medicine, we are learning all the time. And we are learning that exercise triggers biochemical reactions that are rejuvenating on so many levels that it could never be replaced by a pill. Even in brain research, we’re finding that exercise helps stimulate the development of new brain cells, or neurons, which is something we used to think wasn’t possible after the first few years of life. Exercise is important to overall health and brain health at all ages, but especially in older people. We are all busy, but we have to figure out ways to incorporate exercise into our lives. It’s an obvious basic goal, but it’s one that people don’t really take to heart as seriously as they should.

Another is the importance of work-life balance, which is something I struggle with. The idea that more work is always better is ingrained into medical training. And that’s not always true: sometimes less work is better. When you do less work, you can sometimes actually produce more useful and powerful and innovative solutions. Work-life balance is something a lot of people talk about, but few live it. It’s really important to figure it out.

Finally, be kind to everyone and lend a helping hand when you can. These simple acts can have a ripple throughout the community, and can even lower stress levels and boost self-esteem and productivity.

What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

1. I wish someone had told me before I entered this profession not to forget that you are here to take care of people.
2. Remember to match what you are doing and why you are doing it: you are in medicine to take care of people and you can’t forget that.
3. The life of a doctor is filled with challenges. We are seeing a lot of burnout among physicians today. A lot of that has to do with the new complexities of the healthcare system.
4. The healthcare system is still trying to figure out its own set of challenges, from new technology to regulatory updates to new treatments. Be prepared to flex and adapt.
5. Acknowledge your mistakes and always do your best. A lot of doctors are unnecessarily practicing defensive medicine. But if you acknowledge your mistakes instead of hiding from them, it’s unlikely that you’ll be caught up in a lawsuit. Medicine is an imperfect art.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Globally the bigger issues are related to healthcare. I would say access to basic healthcare. Even access to clean water and adequate nutrition. Prenatal care for pregnant women and vaccinations for young children. These would probably be the most impactful things. I always say that what I do is a niche job — it affects a very small fraction of people. If we invest in basic public health measures across the globe, we would help billions.

Is there a person in the world or in the United States with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Having a meal with Barack Obama would be the most rewarding for me. In my time, he has been one of the most passionate and eloquent public speakers. He has always seemed very smart, but also extremely humble and approachable. I would enjoy hearing his life story — he has seen so much. Although he’s an American, people have viewed him as an outsider, which I can relate to as an immigrant.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Readers can follow my personal LinkedIn.

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!