#9: An Interview with a Neurosurgery Resident

Dr. Ellina Hattar was born in Amman, Jordan and grew up in the Middle East, as well as Odessa, Ukraine and Montreal, Canada. Her family immigrated to Ramsey, New Jersey when she was 13 years of age. She attended Johns Hopkins University where she earned a dual degree in Neuroscience and Public Health. She returned to New Jersey after college to attend NJMS at Rutgers University for medical school. Ellina enjoys the variety of surgical cases she is exposed to and continues to keep an open mind regarding future sub-specialization. During her spare time, she enjoys running with her husband, Jose (a family medicine resident at Jefferson), having movie nights with their chihuahua, Matilda, and spending time with her close-knit family in New Jersey.
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0:00 - Intro
0:51 - Statistics About Neurosurgery
4:40 - What Is Neurosurgery?
8:30 - Neurosurgery Residency
18:47 - How Much Do Neurosurgeons Work?
23:08 - Average Day/Week of a Neurosurgeon
31:38 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do?
35:17 - Why Neurosurgery?
43:30 - Helping Factors to Get Through Med School and NSGY
46:58 - Choosing Neurosurgery
49:20 - Differences Between Neurosurgeons and Family Medicine
50:36 - Best Things About Being a Neurosurgeon
51:16 - Worst Things About Being a Neurosurgeon
53:12 - How to Maintain Mental Wellness?
54:31 - Advice for Students Looking Into NSGY
57:29 - Characteristics of a Student for Neurosurgery
57:40 - Tips and Tricks for NSGY
1:00:18 - Future of Neurosurgery
1:02:52 - Closing Message
1:04:27 - Super Important Question!
1:05:26 - Outro
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Resources:
Residency Information: students-residents.aamc.org/a...
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View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
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Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach and I’m a medical student, and soon to be physician, in Philadelphia. Throughout these episodes I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.
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[@larissamoroz5149]

Congratulations to our amazing daughter Doctor Ellina Hattar-Medina! The most hard working, caring, gentle, brave and selfless Doctor!!!! God’s blessings in everything you do and there is nothing impossible for you!!! We love you and you are an amazing blessing for all us!!

[@user-rq1ig8ls1x]

Do you guys get a lot of hate for being Jewish? Are you upset that your Jewish daughter married a Mexican?

[@sarahh2121]

@@user-rq1ig8ls1xdo you spew racism everywhere you go or are you just threatened when women are clearly more educated and successful than you?

[@rakeenraccoon4094]

How do u know they are Jewish

[@soultune908]

@@user-rq1ig8ls1xif your talking protests for freeing Palestine, that’s not Jewish hate. I agree being discriminative against Jewish people today is wrong but let’s remember calling out Israel doings and protesting against war is not Jewish hate. If Jewish people think it is, then I don’t Know what to say

[@Tuti23-yt1vw]

@@soultune908well said

[@evanrckeys]

It must be tough being in a residency where your partner can go to medical school, do their own residency, and be an attending before you... All the power to you Dr. Hattar! Keep grinding!

[@soultune908]

Why do men get worried over their partners succeeding? Unless you are egoistic and don’t want your partner to be successful before you? Men are weird

[@joesph9748]

Such a gift to have this talent and the desire to put the work in to be a surgeon. Thankful for our doctors.

[@conservativearabgirl5273]

Finally a middle eastern born American doctor! As a premed who was born in Baghdad and moved to America when she was 6, thank you Dr. Hattar for being a wonderful role model! I hope I can be a neurosurgeon one day ❤️

[@sarahursula-zw8gw]

there are more than you'd think , one of those neurosurgeons is from my home country Sudan , another neurosurgeon is from our neighboring country Egypt , they are out there , just not on social media .

[@conservativearabgirl5273]

allhamdiallah @@sarahursula-zw8gw

[@KeenahMoncreace]

This was such an amazing interview! I’m currently in school and looking forward to becoming a neurosurgeon as well! As a woman going into a male dominated field you are truly inspiring. Thank you Dr. Ellina Hattar! You are truly an inspiration to us all!

[@dacooldude7692]

the medical field will soon be women dominated

[@useruser0090]

girly i just know that you will absolutely succeed in being a neurosurgeon, don't let anyone stop you from doing what you love sis, you've got it! i also want to pursue it as well! :)

[@elisaamandagonzalez9170]

Pop

[@ArpitYadav-650]

She is so calm and humble Hat's off to you Doctor.Girls must be more in surgical field specially Neurosurgeon in India and all over the world ❤❤

[@user-fn8cz9yb7q]

Great interview! We sincerely admire and are proud of the wonderful Doctor Ellina Hattar-Medina! Thank God that there are such selfless, hardworking, caring, highly qualified specialists who love their work! God bless you!

[@larissamoroz5149]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@anacarpenter9254]

Good afternoon listening to a highly skilled interviewer. Interviewing a highly professional woman with skills that can sway her flow of conversation. My line of thought is that honest detail counts. Cheers to the both of you.😊

[@ginkop4908]

Nice ! You did it. Dr. Ellina Hattar Medina. You are Amazing person.

[@samuelbostian423]

Absolutely filled with knowledge and incredibly insightful!

[@ArpitYadav-650]

Great Neurosurgeon Dr Ellina Hattar-Medina ❤❤

[@alejandrorestrepo2142]

Glad to found your other channel .

[@krishgupta963]

Zach you have no idea how much you have helped me in my studies

[@devdroid9606]

I've had many spine surgeries and she comes across as very competent, experienced yet humble. It does take a lot of effort sometimes to convince a patient not to have a surgery, especially when they have lots of pain and it is disrupting their life, but that there is no clear surgical solution to the complaint.

[@june3536]

Interesting! I love your shows...🤩👏😇

[@dasitg1]

Amazing interview, thanks to and your humble and bright guest. Quite level-head honest talk. I learned a lot from it.

[@TheZachHighleyshow]

Thanks for watching and the nice words!

[@larissamoroz5149]

Thank you!

[@xxdakid]

Just came across the show. Great interview! Love the stats at the beginning!

[@missionfallrise1714]

I love this

[@sultanjargia2191]

She looks like a BADASS with kind heart....

[@weeeeeoow]

when she said be humble❤✨

[@chloecagle6493]

Aspiring neurosurgeon here - also an aspiring mom - is it even possible to do both? I know residency is temporary, but 5 am to 7 pm - damn. How would I get to spend time with my kids? I don’t want to wait until after, I’d be much older than I’d like.

[@PierSilver]

Short answer? No. Long answer? If you have robust support network who can literally manage your children globally (partner, family, babysitter) then you are fine. You will interact with the baby/ies for 30min-1h per day and that's it. Otherwise, still no.

[@silasketgaskets8709]

Retired ER physician here. kudos to getting into and completing a neurological surgery residency. Over the years I have consulted them on numerous occasions from the ER. I recall a conversation with one, an MD PhD colleague and friend that trained in a fancy big name program. Conversation was about there being so few residency spots in that field. He was very candid and told me that is to "maintain prestige" Would be more humane to allow more residency spots so they would not need to be worked to death.

[@Sonicphoenix600]

Great Interview. Can anyone explain what the AOA is. Thank you!

[@justingomez2042]

Jesus loves you

[@WheelWarriors2024]

Congrats🥳I love the detailed information and I will be joining medical school soon in the US🙏I wanna be a neurosurgeon someday💯

[@user-cj1xg8se4d]

Pathology next! - From an aspiring neuro / forensic pathologist

[@ATLTraveler]

That’s a catch right there

[@rebeccaphawa362]

After Medschool or UG .Can I do neurosurgeon directly or do I need to do neurologists first and then neurosurgeon?

[@yeldarbjenkins7495]

She’s a bad ass

[@mahdisaloum5641]

Please do one on dermatology

[@TheZachHighleyshow]

Already done, it will be out sometime in summer.

[@Cierrabuttercupbb24]

She reminds me exactly alike my great grandmother who was a Gemini twin and they had Parkinson’s. I would mistakenly think they where both Sagittarius cuz of Ozzy. She had a twin.😮❤❤🎉

[@Tuti23-yt1vw]

You dont belong here -.-

[@innafox5853]

Johns*

[@GeeksGumbot]

They said i wasnt a teamplayer/lacked work ethic/

[@StayFocused-ss5sp]

If she's wanna be a spine surgeon she's should give his some time to ghurki trust hospital in Lahore Pakistan 🇵🇰 they do 15000 thousand surgeries every year work load is huge here

[@stevenkates4876]

Johns JOHNS Hopkins. JOHNS. Not John.

[@PierSilver]

"It's important to have an identity outside of neurosurgery". She says, after saying that she work 5am to 7pm, which is 14hour. If you sleep 7 hours, that leaves you 3 hours of spare time per day. Sorry but there is absolutely no way you get any significant "side identity" with that.

[@roybatty6368]

Those salaries are appalling....no wonder healthcare is so out of reach

[@Iamjustaguy123]

7th year resident....bruh

[@TheExclusiveB13]

The amount of time she says UMMMMMMM

[@yoqiraj]

😆

[@georgesinaihack3750]

It’s Johns Hopkins, not John Hopkins.

[@loyalmoneytv8756]

her voice is more masculine then his