We offer the interview with the head of the Emergency Department of National Center of Surgery, who discusses his goals and main challenges of the profession.

Teimuraz Megrelishvili finished the Faculty of Medicine at Tbilisi State Medical University. He’s a general practice doctor and has an academic degree of the medical doctor.

He’s been working as the head of the Emergency Department of National Center of Surgery since 2017 and has been loyally serving his work. 

- When and why did you choose your profession and the particular field you work in?

- Being a doctor has been my dream since childhood, I was very little when I played doctor with kids of my age. In my mind, the doctor was a person with superpowers who helped sick and bedridden people, cared for them, and served utterly kind work. I haven’t changed the attitude that I had towards this profession since childhood and that's why I haven't even thought about choosing a different profession. I’m very happy with it and think that I made the right decision.

- What does it mean to be a doctor for you?

- Being a doctor is a profession that serves to maintain the most precious thing, human life. It’s the greatest responsibility for me. Being a doctor demands care, sympathy, tolerance, humanity, and love. The doctor wouldn’t be able to fulfill the most complicated mission, save lives, and support health, if not for the immense love for this profession. Our job comprises treatment-prophylaxis that requires immense mental and physical work.

All of this not so rarely leads to the edge of physical capabilities at the risk of your health, but seeing a smile and grateful expression of the patient is enough to forget everything and be full of life.

- What do you consider the biggest challenge to this profession?

- There are severe, fatal conditions against which medicine is sometimes powerless and unfortunately, in those cases, it is impossible to save the patient. We often fight for life. This difficult battle is the greatest challenge for us. Losing a patient is a severe psychological-emotional stress for doctors. Fortunately, thanks to the selfless hard work of our team, we rarely lose this battle. Medicine is a constantly developing field. Today this field is on a much higher level than before. We live in an era of advanced medical technologies that enables us to implement advanced methods of treatment, overcome new challenges, and have maximum results in terms of patient's health.

- What is the greatestwish and goal you’d like to achieve in your professional career?

- A profession that I dedicated most of my life to exhausts us and this process should always be positive. I’d wish for many more achievements and successful results because a grateful patient is the best gift to our profession. 

- What advice would you give to those who are choosing their profession now?

- We plan our lives by choosing a profession, that’s why we should think about it a lot. The majority of students of the finishing year of high school choose profession without putting much thought into it, studying at the faculty chosen without much thought ends only with diploma. Albeit, there are people who thought out what they want to do in the future. In my opinion, those people are very lucky. 

Upon choosing a profession, parents are frequently actively involved in the future planning of their child and I perceive this to be wrong. I think parents should consider children’s interests and support them in pursuing their desired profession.

Every person should choose what their heart desires. Only then will s/he be successful in what s/he does.

- What do you think about the latest challenge to medicine – COVID 19?

- Unfortunately, the list of diseases diversifies with time and we face new challenges. COVID 19 is the latest challenge to modern medicine. Any disease, including COVID 19, requires effective implementation of preventive and treatment measures. Certain steps have been taken in this direction and work on final effective treatment and preventive measure still continues. I think vaccination is the most effective, albeit it’s important for each citizen to follow recommendations and have high civil responsibility while the vaccine is being developed. A joint effort is necessary to solve issues arising from any problem and challenge. 

- How do you see the development of your field even in 10 years?

- Emergency medicine is a relatively new field in Georgia. Today I can boldly state that our emergency fully meets modern requirements and is ready for any challenges. I strongly believe that emergency will become even more important over time since only the structure of emergency enables us to provide higher quality safe services in one space for patients with any diseases. I’d like to remind you that prompt and effective primary medical care is decisive in the further recovery of the patient. 

Neurointerventions and thrombolytic therapy might seemed impossible around 3 years ago, but today it’s a common part of our daily routine. Along with the rapid development of medical fields and technologies, new capabilities that are essential for effective disease management have emerged.

Wish you health!