Will Kang, MD – From Concert Halls to Operating Rooms: Orthopedics, Identity, and Life Beyond the Scalpel

Board-certified orthopedic surgeon, social media personality, and former professional violinist Dr. Will Kang joins Dr. Michael Jerkins for an engaging conversation on unconventional career paths, surgical culture, and building a life in medicine that extends beyond the operating room. Dr. Kang reflects on his early years as a classically trained musician, the role of parental influence in high-level performance, and how a career-altering shoulder injury ultimately redirected him from the concert stage to medicine.

He shares how the COVID-19 pandemic reignited a long-standing interest in media, leading him to create educational and humorous content on social media. The discussion weaves through the realities of surgical training, the stereotypes surrounding different specialties, and why surgeons often develop thick skin, big egos, and an efficiency-first communication style just to survive the field.

Dr. Kang also offers a candid look at balancing a demanding surgical career with family life, emphasizing why he’s chosen to prioritize being present at home, even when it comes at a professional cost. Looking ahead, he weighs in on the future of orthopedic surgery, including the growing role of robotics, AI, and real-time imaging.

What does it take to pivot when your original dream no longer fits? And how can surgeons build resilience, maintain perspective, and define success on their own terms?

Dr. Kang closes with advice for aspiring surgeons, reflections on criticism and self-healing, and why—despite the challenges—he still believes medicine is a career worth choosing.

Here are five takeaways from the conversation with Dr. Will Kang:

1. Transition from Music to Medicine

Dr. Kang’s journey from being a professional violinist to an orthopedic surgeon highlights the importance of adaptability and resilience. His career shift was prompted by a shoulder injury, leading him to pursue medicine as a new challenge.

2. The Role of Social Media

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Kang began creating videos, initially focusing on mask-wearing. This venture into social media allowed him to connect with a broader audience and share his experiences as a surgeon and former musician.

3. Balancing Career and Family

Dr. Kang emphasizes the importance of prioritizing family over career. He candidly shares his decision to choose family over work, acknowledging the challenges of balancing a demanding surgical career with personal life.

4. Surgical Stereotypes and Realities

The episode humorously explores stereotypes of various surgical specialties. Dr. Kang acknowledges that while some stereotypes hold truth, they often overlook the dedication and hard work required in the field.

5. Future of Orthopedic Surgery

Dr. Kang discusses the potential role of AI and robotics in orthopedic surgery, expressing skepticism about fully autonomous surgical robots. He highlights the importance of human decision-making in surgery, despite technological advancements.

Transcript

Dr. Will Kang
So I’ve changed my mind, you know, with my kids. I would encourage them to go into medicine. Surgery—probably not.

Dr. Michael Jerkins
Welcome back to another episode of The Podcast for Doctors (By Doctors). I’m Dr. Michael Jerkins, here with an amazing guest today. Unfortunately, Dr. Ned Palmer is not with me today. I don’t think we’ve been on an episode together in quite a while.

I’m joined by someone who is not just an orthopedic surgeon, but an orthopedic surgeon and social media influencer who’s going to talk to us about life as an orthopedic surgeon, life as a social media influencer, and what financial mistakes he may or may not have made. Maybe he hasn’t made any. Maybe he’s like a lot of orthopedic surgeons I know and has never made a mistake at all. Who knows? We’ll have to find out.

I’m super excited about our guest today, and I think we’re going to have a pretty fun conversation. Let’s get right to it.

We’re excited to welcome our esteemed guest, Dr. Will Kang, who is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon practicing in lovely Baltimore, Maryland. As he describes it—in his words—to fulfill all racial stereotypes, he worked as a full-time professional violinist before quitting to become a physician, which I have lots of questions about. He also has a lovely wife and two rascal daughters. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Kang.

WK:
Thank you so much for having me.

MJ:
Your videos are awesome. I think they’re hilarious. I have lots of friends who send me your videos and share them, so they pad your engagement stats. Can you tell us a little bit about how you actually got into that? Was it something you did on purpose, or was it accidental—your social media activity?

WK:
I got into it like most things I did during COVID. We weren’t seeing many patients. My first video was about wearing masks. I remember distinctly—wow, it’s been about five years now.

My brother reminded me that in junior high, I made commercials for our morning news show called Wake Up Warp Up. I totally forgot about that. I made skits to sell candy from the office, so it probably started in seventh grade, to be honest. You’d have to find an old VHS and burn it onto a CD and convert it. I don’t even think that technology exists anymore.

MJ:
Is that on YouTube somewhere?

That’s amazing. From a young age you were doing that. And I guess from a young age you were also playing the violin. You have to start pretty early to be a professional, I suppose.

WK:
I think I started before my fifth birthday, and that’s pretty average. In music conservatory, you rarely met anyone who started after age six or seven. Most people were four or five or even younger.

They started early either because they were that good or because they had family that said, “We want this to be a priority in your life, and we’re going to make you do this from the age of five.”

If there’s ever been a child who truly wanted to play the violin, I haven’t met them. I liked doing it, but even Yo-Yo Ma—the great cellist—has said he couldn’t bear the thought of practicing. Before you start sounding good, I think it’s really something parents do to build resilience in their kids. I did it to my kids too, so I hope it’s worthwhile.

MJ:
Do they play violin or a different instrument?

WK:
One plays violin, one plays piano. I asked them, “What’s the hardest thing you do?” and they said music. I said, “Well, that’s probably a good thing.” If that’s the hardest thing they do, then I’m okay with that.

MJ:
At your peak, practice-wise, what was the most you would practice in a day?

WK:
At music conservatory, you’re playing all day. You probably spend three or four hours in rehearsals—whether it’s orchestra or chamber music—and then maybe another three or four hours in coursework. The rest is probably four to five hours a day by yourself in a room. So seven or eight hours a day with a violin in your hand for many, many years.

In high school, I probably practiced three to four hours a day. I can’t tell you what drove me other than being a perfectionist and wanting to win competitions.

MJ:
What do you think you’ve spent more time doing—having a violin in your hands or having a scalpel in your hands?

WK:
I’ve probably spent more time playing the violin, but I’ve spent more hours in a hospital.

Not necessarily with a scalpel in my hand—with a pager in my hand. I’ve probably spent more hours with a pager than with a violin at this point.

MJ:
That makes sense. Doctors are interesting people. There’s a wide spectrum of life experiences. What specialty do you think has the most former professional musicians, if you had to guess?

WK:
Great question. I actually don’t know that many. You did have a guest on your show who was an ex–boy band pop star in emergency medicine. Someone I went to music conservatory with is a radiation oncologist. My brother—who wasn’t professional but was high-level—is a general surgeon.

It’s probably as diverse as the instruments they play.

MJ:
Probably surgeons, though, right?

WK:
There may be something there. If you played an instrument, there’s an admiration for people who use their hands well. Even now, I notice when people are very coordinated. But the numbers are so small that statistically it might be hard to study.

What’s interesting is professional gamers. They might make so much money that they don’t want to go into medicine. Some of those numbers are insane. If a kid shows their parents that paycheck, it’s hard to convince them to take out a $500,000 loan for med school.

There was a study showing gamers made fewer mistakes on robotic surgery simulators, so there’s probably a higher correlation between gamers and surgeons than musicians and surgeons.

MJ:
That makes sense. I trained with an ENT who was a former professional pianist, and the dexterity was incredible.

Walk me through your journey. You reach the pinnacle as a professional violinist—when did you decide to become an orthopedic surgeon?

WK:
I had no desire to be a doctor initially, even though I come from a family of doctors. I picked violin because it was fun and challenging. It actually started when I hurt my shoulder.

As an orchestral musician, you usually climb the ladder. You start with part-time orchestras and work your way up. You might rehearse five hours a day and then practice another four or five hours at home.

I developed a repetitive stress injury and had to take a few months off. I thought, “If I can’t do this, what am I going to do?” It wasn’t a long, drawn-out process. I just thought, “That sounds hard and fun—let’s try it.”

I was in Tampa, Florida, playing with the Florida Orchestra at the time. Sitting on my couch, I made the decision. I went to the Goucher College post-baccalaureate pre-med program outside Baltimore.

It’s a crash course—chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biochemistry—and you take the MCAT within a year. It worked for me. It helped me stand out because I had a unique background. The post-bac year was painful, but not as painful as I expected.

If I were advising someone starting college now, I’d consider this route. Pick something interesting, stand out, and then do the science later. It’s not the only way, but it’s a good way.

MJ:
I have a somewhat similar story—well, not really similar. I wasn’t a professional musician, obviously, but I chose to study something I found interesting. I knew I was going to pursue medicine and pre-med, but I did economics as my degree. I thought, “Hey, this would be fun to study. I don’t really know if I’ll ever use it.”

Luckily, later in life, starting a fintech company, it came in handy. But at the time, it was more like, “I’ve got the rest of my life to do medicine. I’m going to try something different now.” It gave me a more diverse background.

To your point, it’s one way to do it. It’s not the only way—it’s just what worked for me. I don’t regret it at all because I’ll probably never get that kind of training again.

WK:
That makes total sense. Your economics background really fits. One great thing about medicine is that it’s almost limitless—limited only by your creativity and how hard you want to work. I think it worked out perfectly for you.

It’s interesting, I was just talking to someone about this recently. We have a lot of training that can be applied in many places. Of course, treating patients—but also gathering data, assessing it, coming up with a plan, communicating that plan, seeing if it worked, and then building a relationship with the human on the other side.

Those are skills that transfer to a lot of industries. I don’t think doctors always see how limitless our training really is. It’s often limited by what our mentors have seen or the paths they’ve taken.

MJ:
I probably sound like a broken record because I talk about this almost every episode, so apologies to anyone listening. But you’re right—it’s really limitless what you can do.

I want to go back to your kids—you called them rascals, which sounds accurate. When they talk to you about becoming doctors, how do you handle those conversations? Do you encourage them?

WK:
I’ve actually changed my mind about that. When I first got out of residency and started practicing, I thought, “My kids definitely shouldn’t do this. This is way too hard.”

But now, seven or eight years in, I’ve changed my mind. I would encourage them to go into medicine. At one point, it got so stressful and so hard that I thought about not doing this anymore. The moral injury became so great that I wondered if I could handle it.

When you think about jobs where you genuinely help people, there aren’t that many. Police officers, firefighters, people in the armed services, social workers, mental health providers, teachers—and forgive me, Charles Barkley, if you’re watching, because I stole this from you—and then healthcare.

Medicine is unique because you can help people, be reasonably compensated, and even be an entrepreneur. It’s a very valuable degree if you want to start your own business. So I’ve changed my mind.

I would encourage my kids to go into medicine. Surgery, though—probably not.

MJ:
Why not? Tell me more about that.

WK:
Surgery is a whole different beast, especially when you’re starting a family—which I think is the best part of life. Everything gets pushed back. Everything is delayed. There are advantages, but it’s much harder.

You don’t have the same energy you had when you were younger. And by the time my kids are in college, I’ll be nearing retirement age. Surgery is just a lot. Even with duty-hour restrictions, I’m not sure it’s worth it. Maybe I’ll change my mind again in five years.

MJ:
I really appreciate how authentic and transparent you’re being. When you think about these conversations with your kids, is there a specialty you’d suggest they consider?

WK:
One thing people don’t always consider when choosing a specialty is how much they like being around other people all day. I’m very introverted. For me, seeing 20, 30, 40, 50 people a day was exhausting.

If someone had guided me, they might have suggested pathology or radiology—fields where you’re still helping people and working with other doctors, but not constantly interacting with large numbers of patients. One of my kids is more introverted, one more extroverted, so I’d definitely take that into account if they were choosing.

MJ:
Do you think medical schools do a good job guiding students on which specialties they should choose?

WK:
No, but I also don’t know how they could do it better. It’s like being a parent—you don’t really know what it’s like until you’re in it.

Your decisions are often skewed by the doctors you meet. You meet one really nice neurosurgeon and think all neurosurgeons must be like that. Then you realize later that’s not always the case.

MJ:
That’s true. One of our former guests, Dr. Josh Daly, a pediatric cardiologist, did some academic work on better systems for guiding students toward specialties that fit them. You’re trying to cram all of this into your first two years—letters of recommendation, research, rotations.

You meet one person you like and think, “This is it,” and then you meet everyone else on interview day and think, “Maybe not.”

It’s hard to explain to people outside of medicine. You’re kind of locked in. Your identity becomes wrapped up in your specialty. Imagine telling everyone you matched into ortho and then saying, “Actually, I want to be a pathologist.”

WK:
Exactly. The British system is different. They do a few years as general doctors before choosing a specialty. That makes sense.

For competitive fields, you have to commit so early. I had a high school student ask me how to get into orthopedic surgery. I thought, “We’re starting this arms race in high school now?”

People have 100 research articles by the time they apply. I don’t know who’s reading all of it, but it’s insane what we put trainees through just to get into these fields.

WK:
It’s an arms race at every level. Two generations ago, nobody did orthopedic fellowships. Now, 90% do. Some people do multiple fellowships.

This might sound curmudgeonly, but I think academic centers benefit from having low-wage fellows generating revenue. There’s a strange incentive structure to keep more trainees around without paying full attending salaries.

I don’t think that’s a conspiracy theory. If you were designing the most efficient revenue-generating system, more residents and fellows is probably what you’d come up with.

MJ:
I remember being told during training that we actually lost the hospital money—that residency was almost charity. Anyone listening knows that’s not true.

From a surgeon’s perspective, what do you think is the biggest misconception about surgeons?

WK:
Most of my Instagram reels are based on surgeon stereotypes—and honestly, I think most of them are true. Surgeons tend to have big egos. You almost have to in order to survive. They’re incredibly hardworking and often very direct, if only because there’s no time to soften the message.

MJ:
This is fun—can I ask about stereotypes by surgical specialty? Let’s start with general surgery.

WK:
General surgeons are the “we’ll do it” people. If it’s a problem, it’s their problem. They roll up their sleeves and get to work. Any body part, any situation—they’ve got it.

Contrast that with a Mohs surgeon…

MJ:
You already answered the question, I guess. By definition they’re surgeons, but…

WK:
In a way, they might be the smartest surgeons that exist because they risk the least amount of their soul. I always say I leave a little part of my soul in every patient I operate on. They probably have the lowest moral cost with that—but maybe I’m wrong. I’m not a Mohs surgeon, so I don’t know.

I do like to make fun of dermatologists, but it comes from a place of jealousy. One of my first popular videos was about that. I’m jealous of Mohs surgeons. I’m jealous of dermatologists, actually.

MJ:
I thought you were going to say they’re the smartest because they don’t deal with surgical emergencies. Their time-versus-revenue ratio is probably the most favorable of any surgical specialty.

Alright, we talked about general surgery. What about neurosurgery? What’s the stereotype there?

WK:
Neurosurgeons love money. They think they’re the best. It’s not an accident that Dr. Strange—the Marvel superhero surgeon—was a neurosurgeon. Biggest egos, biggest cars, most wives—that’s neurosurgery.

MJ:
Okay, this is getting spicy. I like it. What about cardiothoracic surgeons?

WK:
They’re the ones who maybe look down on the rest of us. They do have an incredibly technically challenging job, and they’ll always remind you they’re operating on a beating heart and stitching moving vessels.

My perception is probably skewed by the one I rotated with, who—let’s just say—was very nice to me.

MJ:
There’s probably a reason you didn’t go into cardiothoracic surgery. I’ve got a lot of family in this next one, so I won’t be offended. Ophthalmologists—what do you think?

WK:
Ophthalmologists are incredibly skilled, really laid back, and fun-loving. They picked a field where they could have a life outside of medicine. The most famous ophthalmologist on social media, Dr. Coleman Flecken—if I’m pronouncing that correctly—is a great example. Funny, relaxed, but also incredibly smart.

MJ:
That’s flattering to my uncle and my cousin, so no offense taken. I won’t ask about urologists because that’s my dad.

From the outside, it seems like ophthalmology has good balance—continuity with patients, a mix of clinic and OR. I’m just a lowly Med-Peds guy. I can only work with my brain. Someone once told me we judge our value by how many words we write in a progress note.

WK:
We’re on opposite ends of the spectrum. Our notes were basically thumbs up, “A-okay,” fingers crossed.

MJ:
I’ve also heard ophthalmologists write in code—only other ophthalmologists can read their notes. I don’t even know if what they wrote is true. I can’t invalidate it. Maybe now AI in the EMR can translate ophthalmology notes.

Let me ask you this: what’s one piece of advice you’d give to trainees who want to be surgeons?

WK:
When medical students tell me they want to be surgeons, I spend the first part of the conversation trying to convince them not to be surgeons. If they still want to do it after that, then okay—you can be a surgeon.

The most important thing is finding a way to heal the injuries you’re inevitably going to incur. Someone yelling at you, being criticized unfairly, missing one thing when you did 120 things right at hour 25 of a shift—you need a way to recover from that.

You have to find self-worth somewhere—within yourself, your family, or your support system—because surgery can be brutal. You’ll get yelled at, underappreciated, and unfairly criticized.

And try not to cope with stress by stress eating like most of us do. Find another outlet.

MJ:
Do you think surgeons today are overprepared or underprepared for the OR?

WK:
I don’t work with many residents now, but my brother is a residency program director. When I trained, we had a hospital in Louisiana—the Bayou division. The residents truly ran the show. You got good fast, and by the time you finished, you were ready to operate.

Now it seems like residents get fewer reps, more supervision, and more scrutiny. I don’t think it’s just duty hours. It’s probably less freedom to figure things out independently.

That said, every generation thinks the next one is worse. I’m already a dinosaur with robotics, AI, and new technology. It’s like basketball—everyone who played in the ’90s says today’s players are terrible. Surgeons are no different.

MJ:
I’m very interested in your basketball takes, but we’ll save that for another time.

I agree—this idea that the next generation isn’t as good comes up everywhere. There was a Wall Street Journal article about doctors treating medicine more like a job than a calling. Do you see that in surgery?

WK:
In orthopedics, most surgeons I know work incredibly hard. I’m probably one of the least hard-working orthopedic surgeons I know—and I still work pretty hard.

MJ:
You’re probably underselling yourself.

WK:
I do think a happier surgeon is a better surgeon. Personally, I don’t think surgery should be your entire life. I think your family should come first.

As the child of doctors who took doctoring very seriously—and not to criticize my parents, because they did an amazing job raising us—I do think there was something missing at times in the parent-child relationship. If you say being a doctor is your calling and your patients come first, then by definition your family comes second. That’s a choice each generation has to make.

If that’s true, then I’m guilty. I’ve picked my family over my job. Whether that makes me a worse doctor than I would have been otherwise, I don’t know. But more than I thought when I entered medical school, I’ve come to believe the human side of doctoring is more important.

The technical skill—how you put the implant in, how straight the bone is, how accurate your cuts are—those things are actually less important than the relationship you have with the patient. I don’t know if there are studies to back that up, but I’m pretty sure there are.

If you can truly connect with your patients, it’s mind-boggling. I’ve had surgeries where I thought, technically, I didn’t do that well, yet the patients did amazingly. Maybe it was because they trusted me. And I’ve had surgeries I thought were perfect—the best surgery I ever did—and the patient didn’t do as well as expected. Maybe the relationship wasn’t as strong.

And it’s also kind of a false choice that you either have to choose your family or choose medicine. That idea shows up in clickbait articles meant to spark engagement. But as someone who also had a parent who was a surgeon—

MJ:
I don’t know if they slept, because they were always at work, but they didn’t miss a lot of our stuff. Maybe they missed some things, but for the most part they were always there for the major moments.

So there is a way. I’m not saying it’s easy, or that you get much sleep, but you can do both and still be an excellent physician—someone people trust and want to see. That’s what comes to mind when I think of an excellent clinician.

I agree with you that it’s a bit of a false choice. I totally agree with your take on priorities. And you want your doctor to have a life outside of medicine, to a degree. You want them to be a real human being. Like you said—a happy doctor is a good doctor. I love that.

I’m also curious, as an orthopedic surgeon, if you agree with this: I think one of the most underrated specialties from a clinical perspective is PM&R. Our colleagues. Do you work with a lot of PM&R doctors?

WK:
Not directly, but I agree they’re underrated. They run a lot of the protocols. They don’t do the “sexy” side of medicine, but they do the more important side.

In orthopedics, surgery is actually a very small part of the process. You have to get it right—you can’t do a bad job—but if you do a perfect surgery and the rehab doesn’t go well, it doesn’t matter how good the surgery was.

On the other hand, I’ve seen some weird-looking X-rays paired with amazing physical therapy, and the patients do great. In many ways, what PM&R physicians do is more important than what the surgeon does.

MJ:
I totally hear that. In primary care, I see a lot of patients who had orthopedic surgery years ago, but that surgeon has moved on or they can’t get in to see them anymore. Getting those patients connected with PM&R can go a long way in helping them feel better—without necessarily sending them back to the OR, at least not right away.

That’s probably my favorite referral. PM&R feels like primary care for surgeons in a lot of ways. They can do so much outside of the OR. I think they take a really great approach to patients. I’m biased, obviously.

If you really wanted to do what’s most economical for our healthcare system, you’d find a way to reward PM&R more. It’s cheaper to do rehab without surgery and still get the same result. But we don’t measure that.

All my surgical colleagues are probably thinking, “What are you doing? You’re committing career suicide. You’re a traitor.” And yeah, maybe I am. But when we talk about quality, to me quality is: how do you spend the least amount of money, with the least risk, to get the best result?

That’s not what we measure right now. We measure surgical complications, not outcomes across the entire continuum of care. Maybe someday we’ll capture that better—like which group of doctors gets the same results with the fewest risks.

Let me ask you this: if you were in charge of healthcare in general, what’s the one thing you’d change that would have the most profound effect on the most people?

WK:
That one’s easy. People need to eat better food. That’s 90% of what I see.

The worst food is the cheapest food and the most available food. It’s irresistible. It tastes the best, it’s convenient, it’s high calorie—why wouldn’t you eat it?

If I could wave a magic wand, fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats would be almost free. And pre-packaged cereals and sugary bars would cost $100. If we did that, we probably wouldn’t have jobs—but actually, we would, because real accidents would still happen.

MJ:
It’s almost like a tax, like they do with cigarettes or alcohol.

WK:
Exactly. I think they’ve tried that in some places with sugary drinks. I don’t know the outcomes, but the idea makes sense.

MJ:
I love that. So let me ask you this—within orthopedics, where do you see the biggest technological advances? Fast forward ten years. What’s going to look different in the OR?

WK:
There are going to be a lot more robots. From a clinical standpoint, I don’t know if they’ll make a huge difference. You’d think a million-dollar robot would produce millions of dollars’ worth of improvement, but so far the data hasn’t really shown that.

Still, there will be more robots, more real-time imaging, and more virtual reality. Surgeons will be wearing goggles or headsets where you can see anatomy in real time—templated cuts, implant placement, all overlaid during surgery. That’s coming.

AI is also going to play a big role in individualized surgery, especially for repeatable procedures like joint replacements. Whether it actually makes a clinical difference remains to be seen, but the technology will be there.

MJ:
That’s actually a great segue into one of our closing segments—a rapid-fire true or false. I say “rapid,” but it usually turns into a conversation, which is perfect.

So let’s start with an easy one. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. True or false?

WK:
True.

MJ:
That was rapid. I was hoping you might be a LeBron fan, but you’re a child of the ’90s, so that tracks.

WK:
The argument isn’t who did it the longest—it’s who reached the highest peak. Who reached the highest?

MJ:
Do you put Kobe above LeBron then?

WK:
No, I think I get the bros.

MJ:
Okay, who’s your all-time starting five? This is not rapid fire—I’m going off script here. Who’s your starting five by position?

WK:
I’ll start with the most underrated. Tim Duncan has to be the power forward.

MJ:
One hundred percent. Do you call Bill Russell a center or a power forward? Is he a center?

WK:
Yeah, I’d say center. And the reason is—I’m trying to win a championship here. Am I winning a championship or just scoring a bunch of points?

MJ:
Let’s say you’re winning a championship. That’s fair. Good question.

WK:
If I’m winning a championship, it has to be Bill Russell. He filled in the gaps. I never saw him play, of course, but he seemed to be the guy who could do whatever was needed—defense, passing, leadership, even coaching.

Shaq is undeniable. If you’re trying to score the most points possible, it’s Shaq. But if I’m building a championship team, I’m taking Bill Russell.

MJ:
So that’s your five and your four. Who’s the rest of the roster?

WK:
At the three, it has to be LeBron. At the two, obviously, Michael Jordan. And at the one—this is controversial—it has to be John Stockton.

I’m trying to win a championship. You can’t have five guys who just shoot the ball. He was my favorite basketball player growing up, and I still love watching film of him. He made everyone around him better. If I’m building a championship team, that’s my starting five.

MJ:
Wow. That might be the hottest take of this entire podcast—maybe even more than the stereotypes. We’re going to get emails from the neurosurgeons.

No, that’s great. Let’s keep going.

True or false: in surgery, attention to detail is more important than speed.

WK:
True.

MJ:
That one felt pretty easy. I can definitely see that.

Next true or false: the hardest-working surgeons are not always the most technically skilled.

WK:
True. Some people just have it. I trained with someone like that—no one taught him how to do it. He could just do it. I can’t explain why.

Some people just have it.

MJ:
He wasn’t a professional musician before?

WK:
No, he just knew what to do. It’s not so much hand skill—it’s where your eyes go and the decisions you make that define a great surgeon.

MJ:
True or false: I would eventually allow an autonomous surgical robot to replace my hip.

WK:
False.

There might be certain scenarios where you’d say, “The goal is just to get the hip in place,” and maybe you sacrifice something major and the robot wouldn’t know the difference—but I’m not there yet.

Most of us probably aren’t. I don’t even want to ride in a self-driving car, let alone have autonomous surgery. People might listen to this fifty years from now and laugh at us. Maybe this episode ends up in the Smithsonian.

But right now, it feels tough. You see all these clickbait headlines saying AI is going to replace all doctors. That’s just meant to stir people up. I don’t hear surgeons saying that. I mostly hear tech moguls and billionaires who’ve never treated a patient.

But what do I know?

MJ:
I think people assume surgery is very scientific and exact—and it is, to a degree—but there are so many judgment calls and gray areas. Sometimes there isn’t a single right answer. And in those moments, what does AI do?

That’s a great point.

Let me finish with one last question we ask every guest. You’ve already kind of answered it, but what’s one thing you’ve changed your mind about recently?

WK:
I do think going into medicine is worthwhile, and I would tell my kids to become doctors.

MJ:
I love that. That’s a really positive note to end on.

Where can people find you online?

WK:
I’m mostly on Instagram at willkangaroo.md. I also have a YouTube channel—I think it’s called Ortho Education—but Instagram is where you’ll find me.

MJ:
We’ll look for you there. I already share your videos—you do a great job.

Thank you for joining us today. This was a really fun episode.

WK:
Thanks so much, Michael. Good luck with Panacea, and I hope everyone does well.

MJ:
Awesome. Thank you.

MJ:

You can catch The Podcast for Doctors (By Doctors) on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all major platforms. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and subscribe. Next time you see a doctor, maybe prescribe this podcast. See you next time.

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