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ΣΥΝΈΝΤΈΥΞΗ
Tεύχος 25 | Σεπτέμβριος – Οκτώβριος 2023
Η ακόλουθη συνέντευξη πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω Zoom στις 19/5/23. Απομαγνητοφώνηση & επιμέλεια κειμένου: Θεόδωρος Σπίνος, ειδικευόμενος Ουρολόγος & Φίλιππος Νικητάκης, ειδικευόμενος Γ/Χ
T.S.: Why did you decide to become a urologist?
H.vP.: Actually, I started my career with General Surgery. When I was still a medical school student, I was very much impressed by a general surgeon who I followed for a couple of months. Indeed, during the sixth year of medical school, we were allowed to participate in clinical work, be it gynecology, internal medicine and surgery. After this term, I decided to become a surgeon. So, I did five years of general surgery but I had contacts with the Urology Department as well, gradually getting more and more interested in Urology. Afterwards, I wanted to start my private practice in General Surgery in a small town near to Leuven with the intention to do some work on Urology, as well, and to get further urological training in another university in Belgium. Then, in the end when I expected that I would sign a contract to install myself as a general surgeon with subspecialty in Urology, the director of that hospital told me that they preferred a genuine urologist rather than a general surgeon. I went back to the university hospital and I finished my training in Urology, which was another three years. So, I was intended to become a surgeon but, in the end, I became a urological surgeon. And this, in my opinion, was an important milestone, helping to develop Urology from what it was at that time (small genital surgery and endoscopy, like stones and TURs) and to become a very strong surgical specialty in my own Department and in many other places around Europe.
F.N.: What do you love the most about Urology? H.vP.: Urology is the only surgical specialty where you see the patient from the beginning to the final treatment, that can be both medical or surgical. This course includes screening, initial diagnosis and therapeutic planning and execution. Moreover, it’s the only surgical specialty where you really do everything yourself, rendering it extremely interesting, because you are an internist, and you are a surgeon at the same time much more than in any other specialty. Another surgeon most of the time, does what his colleague internist asks him to do. On the contrary, a urologist has no internists. Because, a nephrologist is not an internist for urologists, it’s a completely different story. They mostly focus on renal diseases.
I remember at the time there was a battle between internists and surgeons about who would do the gastroscopies and the colonoscopies. And you know what happened, it all went to the internists, because the surgeons had no time to do that. Being a urologist, allows you to do everything.
F.N.: Did you have a mentor in your first steps in the field of Urology?
H.vP.: After finishing my residency in Urology (which was five years of general surgery and three years of Urology), the university sent me out to different places. During this journey, I think that the most important mentor that I have ever had, was Professor José Maria Gil-Vernet from Barcelona. He was very supportive of me, allowing me to attend and assist him in the very complex surgeries that he performed. His surgical skills were what I admired most at him, being really a super anatomic surgeon. And I’m happy to say that we stayed in touch the following years, meeting him still two years before he died in Barcelona. He was really one of my most important mentors, one of my fathers in Urology.
T.S.: When did you decide to follow an academic career? Was it random or it was something that you wanted from the very beginning?
H.vP.: My initial intention was to become a general surgeon in a peripheral hospital, but I ended up becoming a urologist. When I finished my training in Urology, the old chief of Urology was stepping down and retired. Surprisingly, one day he asked me: “Do you want to stay to help my successor in the coming years?” So, I was asked to stay at the university hospital, which had never been my intention. So, I ended up as an academician, which was not my initial aim. It was just a matter of chance and the occasion which was offered to me! Moreover, I had to give up my accreditation as a general surgeon, because otherwise I could not become a professor in urology.
F.N.: What is your advice for a young urologist, who wants to combine clinical practice with academic career?
H.vP.: First of all, you need to know that you want to start an academic career. For example, here in
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