Expanding Surgical Leadership Through Collaboration and Innovation

Irina Bernescu, MD, is a board-certified surgeon in both general surgery and colorectal surgery. After completing her surgical training in 2015 and spending two years in private practice, she joined Ascension Saint Agnes in Baltimore, Maryland, where she helped introduce robotic colorectal surgery. Approaching her tenth year in clinical practice, Bernescu began seeking new ways to expand her organizational skills and prepare for greater leadership opportunities.

Harvard Medical School’s Surgical Leadership Program offered the perfect next step, combining leadership development, business strategy, and innovation in health care in a way that was immediately relevant to her daily work, while shaping her long-term professional goals.

Learning Through Global Perspectives

For Bernescu, the program exceeded her expectations. “It was rewarding and impactful in so many ways—more than I could have anticipated,” she notes. “The material itself was valuable, and the class exercises and projects were thought-provoking and stimulating. What I enjoyed most, however, were the direct interactions with such inspiring faculty and the relationships formed with classmates from a variety of countries, surgical specialties, and backgrounds.”

Because her Surgical Leadership Program cohort included participants from 36 countries, she especially valued the diversity of viewpoints shared within the group. “I loved being exposed to such a wide breadth of perspectives, while being comforted by all the things we had in common and motivated by everybody’s drive to expand their knowledge and maximize their ability to contribute.”

Turning Ideas into Action

During the program, each participant develops and refines a capstone project, an opportunity to apply newly gained leadership and strategic skills toward solving a real-world challenge in health care. Bernescu’s capstone project focused on addressing the inefficiencies in clinical practice and reducing the barriers to patient care.

“My capstone project described an innovative solution to some of the inefficiencies encountered in clinical practice and some existing and anticipated barriers to patient care,” she explains. “I enjoyed the opportunity to describe the idea and formulate a plan to execute it, and I am still considering whether to pursue the development of this solution further.”

Advice for Future Participants

Reflecting on her experience, Bernescu emphasizes the Surgical Leadership Program’s enduring value. “While you will acquire concrete skills and knowledge as expected, the value of the experience goes far beyond the actual curriculum. The perspectives shared and gained will become an invaluable foundation on which you will continue to build.”