Leadership in the Operating Room with Dr. Douglas Johnston

Douglas Johnston, MD, is Vice Chairman, Program Director, and staff cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. He attended Dartmouth College where he was a Presidential Scholar, earning his degree in Anthropology and Classical studies with Honor and Distinction. In the process he performed field research in tuberculosis among refugee communities in India. Dr. Johnston then went on to complete his medical education at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Harvard National Scholar.

Dr. Johnston completed his clinical training in general surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was awarded the Edward D. Churchill Fellowship, the American College of Surgeons Resident Research Scholarship, and an NIH National Research Service Award for his research in the immunology of heart and lung transplantation.

Dr. Johnston then completed his training in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, including a focused fellowship in endovascular surgery and additional training in advanced 3-dimensional imaging techniques. He joined the cardiac surgery staff in 2008.

Dr. Johnston is the author of numerous articles and abstracts published in leading scientific journals. His research interests include high risk aortic valve surgery and interventions, hybrid approaches to complex cardiac disease, and transcatheter interventions for valvular heart disease. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, and the Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography.

An avid outdoorsman, Dr. Johnston enjoys hiking and sailing with his family during his time away from the hospital.

Questions We Asked: 

• Where in Cleveland do you hike and sail? 
• Did you always know you wanted to be involved in leadership? 
• What type of qualities do you look for in your team? 
• Why doesn’t everyone define leadership? 
• What makes a good leader in the operating room? 
• How do you develop calm in stressful situations? 
• Where do you draw the line with emotional behavior in the OR?
• How do you recover from a leadership mistake? 
• What advice would you give to yourself at the beginning of training looking back now? 
• Favorite book and hike? 

Quotes & Ideas: 

• “No matter what specialty you are in, you have teams of people working towards a common goal.” 
• “The best leaders are those who develop other members of the team to be leaders” 
• “Traditional residency training doesn’t address this [leadership]” 
• “A good leader will have the awareness to know the pulse of the room, but won’t try to control everyone.” 
• “When you achieve a state of flow, it’s probably leadership that led to that.” 
• “The best leaders I’ve seen are people whose energy level goes down in a crisis.” 
• As a medical student, be the quiet professional 

Book Suggestions: 

• Turn This Ship Around by L. David Marquet
• The No Asshole Rule by Robert L Sutton