^{Meet Shannon Thomas}

I don't really believe in box-ticking exercises. If I'm gonna do something in my life, I don't want to have regrets about it, ever.

Our interview begins just hours before Shannon must fly out for an overseas conference—Venice, Italy, to be exact. The thought of hiding in his suitcase briefly crosses my mind, but I quickly refocus on the task at hand.

Mindful of Shannon's limited time before his flight, I strategise how to get to the most of our time—a skill I've drawn upon for countless conversations with surgeons over the years. 

Today, Shannon is an accomplished vascular, endovascular, and renal transplant surgeon. He is the Chief Medical Officer of a MedTech start-up, Vexev, which designs non-invasive vascular imaging and monitoring strategies for vascular labs, dialysis providers, and diagnostic services.

In addition, he's the director of two vascular ultrasound laboratories in Sydney, Australia. Regular teaching, training and supervision responsibilities are also included in his primary hospital appointment.

Recently, he completed his PhD, formalising the on-the-job research he'd been conducting in his kidney failure clinics, where he had successfully implemented a technique that significantly delayed the need for dialysis. 

He's also married to a wonderful woman who works as a Psychologist and they have three young children.

From his perspective, he has not only realised his dreams but exceeded them in ways he never could have imagined. 

From my perspective, I’m wondering when he sleeps.

Aiming High and Carving a Path

At a young age, Shannon was encouraged to aim high and nurture big dreams.

My mum, when I was a kid, had a saying: If you aim for the stars, you'll fall in the trees. If you aim for the trees, you'll fall in the ground.

He reflects on his early aspirations of becoming a surgeon, beginning during med school but crystallised during his intern and resident rotational years. Initially, he wanted to pursue the very niche area of paediatric thoracic surgery. The high-stakes environment, the adrenaline rush of making split-second decisions, and the opportunity to make a tangible difference in patients' lives combined to create an irresistible allure. 

"I love being in theatre," he admits with a grin. "I did a lot of colorectal and general surgery as an intern, and I loved it. I realised that it was more just being in the operating theatre environment that appealed to me."

But even with this clarity of purpose, Shannon found himself at a crossroads when it came time to choose a surgical specialty. The research honours he did during med school, paid off, he believes and helped him be quite competitive when applying for training positions.

He was offered spots in cardiac and vascular surgery training programs and was torn between the two paths. It was then that he sought the guidance of a mentor – an experienced surgeon who had walked the road before him. 

"I had this meeting with a professor of surgery at a nearby large hospital," Shannon recounts. "He took me into his room, congratulated me on getting into both, and then he said, 'Do vascular surgery. If you do cardiac, you won't be happy.' He told me that if I got into vascular and didn't like it, I could always switch after a couple of years. But he looked me in the eye and said, 'Trust me, you should do vascular.'" 

Shannon believed his mentor had insights into the culture of both specialties, which informed his view on what would best suit him.

Like countless dedicated doctors before him, Shannon immersed himself fully in his training, sacrificing personal comfort for the sake of his craft.

Unfortunately, surgery, it's like being a pilot learning to be a pilot of a huge aeroplane. It's a lot of responsibility, and you becoming captain is based on whether you can fly that plane or not and fly it damn well.

The PhD Turning Point

A little while after completing his training, becoming a consultant and building his practice, he took advice from his mentors and enrolled in a PhD. "I took on a PhD to formalise the documentation process of everything that I was observing," he explains, "and to give me a bit of time and to give, I think, a lot of credence to the work I was doing."

He credits his PhD journey as pivotal in his personal and professional growth. "You suddenly have oversight of what you're doing," he reflects. "You're given goals every year that you need to hit, and suddenly, for me, it wasn't that there were goals to achieve, but my curiosity just blew."

I could relate to the impact of Shannon's PhD journey. While there are skills and learning along the way, the intrinsic value for me was how it unlocked a way to ask and answer questions that live on well beyond thesis submission.

Inquiry as a way of being.

A hospital-university partnership saw two particular engineering students involved in a project within his public clinic. Through multidisciplinary collaboration and innovative problem-solving, Shannon first connected with the brilliant engineers who would later become his colleagues at the MedTech company. "Two of the students coming to that clinic came up with the technology after they finished their PhD," he recounts. "And it was something I felt that I could help direct them with."

Now, as the Chief Medical Officer, Shannon plays an instrumental role in steering the development of cutting-edge hardware and software that directly impacts patient care. It's a natural extension of his passion for research and commitment to improving outcomes.

It was very organic. I have never aspired to be a company medical officer in any way. Still, for me, it really fits in with my research.

I was curious how it works with all his other commitments. "I'm plugged into certain Slack channels," he explains, "and so it probably takes a day a week, but it's not like I sit down and do that. It's basically providing quick responses to team members when they've got queries." Shannon highlights the role of systems that enable efficient workflows, not just for him but also for his staff.

Burnout and Rediscovering Humanity

But in his relentless pursuit of excellence, Shannon was caught in a cycle that would feel all too familiar to many in healthcare.

I think when you're a trainee doctor, like a registrar or a resident, you're made to work hard, not smart. You are basically being shown the ropes; you have to do crazy hours, and you do that at the expense of your mental and physical well-being.

The challenges Shannon faced are not uncommon among hospitals and clinics worldwide. The demanding nature of the work, coupled with a strong sense of responsibility to patients, can often lead to a belief that one must constantly push oneself to the limit. Junior doctors, in particular, often internalise distress as failure and fear that admitting to struggles with mental health may result in being perceived as weak or incompetent by patients and colleagues. 

The pressure to "make it" in an increasingly competitive environment can be overwhelming, and many junior doctors find it difficult to speak up about mistreatment or excessive workloads for fear of jeopardising their career progression. This culture of silence perpetuates a vicious cycle, as doctors become ill but do not seek help, ultimately leading to burnout and even more severe consequences.

For Shannon, the moment of clarity came after five years of intense dedication as a consultant surgeon. "I think I just got burnt out," he admits candidly. "I started to get really sick, have the flu and whatnot. And there was one year where I was actually quite sick, and I realised things had to change."

This moment of reckoning forced Shannon to confront the uncomfortable truth that his approach to success was unsustainable. "I think you have to work smart, not hard," he realised. "And I think you need to learn how to do that."

Embracing this newfound wisdom, Shannon made a series of choices to reclaim his well-being and redefine his relationship with work. He scaled back to a four-day workweek, carving out precious time for self-care practices like running and yoga, family, and "doing school drop-off and all those normal human things." 

He admits that this did not feel easy given his long time on 'autopilot' and singularly building his medical career.

You have to learn how to have a boring day in the park with your kids or how to go out and learn a skill to play piano or guitar or do something. You've got to learn to be human essentially.

Many of us can relate to this—learning to be content and present in the mundane after many years of intense achievement. There is nothing wrong with striving or achieving, but the transition can be challenging.

Ask any parent. Work is, more often than not, easier. It's familiar, more structured, and less ambiguous than the nuance and messiness of human relationships and homelife. In the latter, the rewards are often slower to manifest and less tangible than those in the professional sphere, requiring a shift in perspective and a willingness to find joy in the small, everyday moments that ultimately make up a rich and meaningful life.

The changes Shannon made profoundly impacted every aspect of his life. He found that he was more productive and efficient in his work, even though he spent less time in the hospital. He had more energy and focus and could approach challenges with a clearer head and a more positive outlook.

I actually feel that I will do more in 2024 in four days than I did five days back in 2017, 2018. I'm more productive, I'm happier, I'm being paid more. On every metric, I think I'm in a better place.

Many of us can struggle to embrace this notion—the idea that investing in our own well-being is not an indulgence but a vital necessity. By granting ourselves permission to be fully human and to cultivate rich lives outside of our professional roles, we paradoxically become more effective in our work.

Leading Through Empowerment and Collaboration

Hearing how Shannon has grown to recover from burnout and realign his career pursuits with his well-being and personal life, I'm not ignorant that this isn't a one-man show. So, I dig deeper to see what other support structures enable the ongoing realisation of both his own aspirations and those he’s charged with supporting. 

Leading multiple teams across various arenas, Shannon is no stranger to the challenges of assembling and managing high-performing groups, particularly when navigating the intricate landscape of human resources. "I don't think I'm a good HR person at all," Shannon admits candidly. "I've been very badly burnt by having poor-fit secretaries and sonographers."

As a result, Shannon has learned to draw on the wisdom and expertise of others. "Having my practice manager now, she has much more experience than I do with HR management," he explains. "I delegate that to her and lean on her experience." This willingness to acknowledge one's limitations and seek out the guidance of others is a lesson that extends far beyond the realm of HR. Shannon wisely observes, "You've got to lean on other people's experience sometimes when you don't have those skills, and it's humbling, right?"

At the heart of Shannon's leadership philosophy lies a deep respect for every team member, where he assumes the best in them until proven otherwise. "I always try to picture myself in their shoes," he explains. He understands that fostering a culture of excellence requires valuing and empowering individuals at all levels. "I think the one thing that I've learned is respect for them is really important," he emphasises. "If you respect them, they'll respect you." 

He indicates that this is not necessarily how he was treated in training or has had leadership modelled to him. This highlights how a doctor, high up in the hospital and healthcare hierarchy, has choices on how to respond to the challenges and opportunities of needing people. Some copy the archaic and hypercritical feedback in their training, but others, like Shannon, have made a conscious decision to break the traditions and lead others with positivity.  

As director of the vascular ultrasound laboratories, he emphasises cultivating solid and collaborative relationships with his staff. 

"You can run the job where you don't really communicate with the staff; you don't show them that they're valued," he explains. "We've got it here; we're on a WhatsApp group with the sonographers, they send us their results, we'll communicate with them directly or indirectly and make sure that technically we're achieving the level of scan quality that is important to us."

For Shannon, this kind of open, transparent communication is the key to unlocking the best possible outcomes for patients.

I think it's really important how you communicate with people. Being able to talk to someone and communicate with them at their level, not just trying to boss them around, is really important because you need people —you just don't know when you'll need them.

Inspiring the Next Generation

Shannon is passionate about sharing this message with the next generation of health professionals, especially those who may doubt their potential.

He acknowledges the challenges female trainees face, particularly those who often experience unfair treatment compared to their male counterparts. "When I have juniors now coming into the unit who are interested in surgery, the doubt is more prominent amongst the female trainees," he emphasises. "I say to them, ‘Don't ever let anyone say to you that you don't deserve to be here or you don't deserve it, because you're damn good at what you do. And we all lose out if you are inhibited in your ambition.’"

For Shannon, true success lies not in personal accolades but in the impact one has on others. It's about embracing our humanity, leveraging our unique strengths, and using them to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Shannon's encouragement is simple yet powerful: 

Don't ever think you're not entitled to your dreams, just because you've come from a certain background. Don't ever think you can't reach your dream because the only one telling you that is yourself at the end of the day. Everyone else can give you their opinion, but it's just noise. And if you filter out the noise and focus on your dream, I think you're the only one getting in the way.

In healthcare, it's easy to lose sight of the aspirations that initially drew us to this path. But ultimately, this is the core of our work – the opportunity to touch lives, inspire others, and leave the world a little better than we found it.

Shannon's Wisdom

1. Dream Big: Aim high and believe in yourself. Don’t let self-doubt inhibit you. Pursue your goals relentlessly.

2. Communicate with Respect: Treat everyone with empathy and respect, regardless of their role. Build genuine connections.

3. Know Your Value: Embrace your strengths and stand up for yourself.