Back to Basics

Dick Karl

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The author transitioned from a demanding administrative role as a university surgery chairman back to practicing surgery, finding greater personal satisfaction in clinical work over management.
His post-retirement period included adventurous personal flying, such as ferrying a new plane across the Atlantic, though plans for a commercial pilot's license were abandoned due to economic shifts.
He co-founded the Surgical Safety Institute, a meaningful venture applying aviation safety principles like crew resource management and checklists to improve patient safety in medicine.
Despite financial impacts on his retirement accounts and airplane upgrade plans, he continues to enjoy flying his personal aircraft and finds fulfillment in both his surgical practice and the patient safety initiative.

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In October of last year I retired from the University of South Florida after 25 years of consecutive employment in its medical college. I had served in several capacities during my tenure; ending as chairman of the surgery department for the last nine-plus years. Change is always challenging and I really had very little idea as to what to expect.

So far, so good. I have landed happily back where I started, as a working, not an administrative, surgeon. I operate at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, an institution I helped found; I did the first surgical operation there in 1986. So it isn’t retirement exactly, but it is a profound change in my life.