In 2025, many CCTS authors make outstanding contributions to our journal. Their articles published with us have received very well feedback in the field and stimulate a lot of discussions and new insights among the peers.

Hereby, we would like to highlight some of our outstanding authors who have been making immense efforts in their research fields, with a brief interview of their unique perspective and insightful view as authors.

Outstanding Authors (2025)

Scarlett Tohme, Northwell Health, USA

Hirohisa Kato, Okitama Public General Hospital, Japan

Kyle Miletic, Henry Ford Hospital, USA

Outstanding Author

Scarlett Tohme

Scarlett Tohme, MD, MS, is an integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident at Northwell Health in Long Island, New York. She completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia University, graduate studies at Georgetown University and obtained her medical degree at New York Medical College before beginning residency. As a cardiothoracic resident, she has been immersing herself in the training with an outstanding thoracic surgery team under the directorship and mentorship of Dr. Paul C. Lee, MD, who has curated a robust and diverse department of open, minimally invasive, and robotic lung and foregut surgery. While her main career interests are adult cardiac surgery, Dr. Tohme holds a great appreciation and interest in complex lung cancer cases, always eager to learn from her mentors to apply the knowledge gained to every aspect of her practice as a resident and future cardiothoracic surgeon. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

The way Dr. Tohme sees it, academic literature is one of the most important aspects of medicine that allows clinicians and researchers across the globe to communicate ideas, practices, and most importantly, the door to advancing medicine. To achieve these ideals, a good academic paper must provide reproducible and evidence-based data and conclusions that encourage intellectual and productive conversations among professionals. In addition, a paper should provide an impact of changing practice to provide patients more efficient and safer treatment options by incorporating the multidisciplinary efforts of various specialties and advancements in basic and translational research.

In Dr. Tohme’s opinion, there are many questions being developed during the process of academic writing, and it is easy to lose sight of the main goal of writing the paper. She adds, “I have been taught and am teaching my own mentees to stay organized and focus on answering the main inquiry in a concise manner that allows any readers to be able to follow and apply the data and views to their own practice.”

“Every step of academic writing is a valuable learning opportunity for everyone involved. It also allows for personal and professional growth, allowing anyone who writes or reads academic literature to go beyond their potential to be an active member of society and help others. It is also an amazing vehicle to bring together like-minded individuals from around the world to collaborate with each other, bringing forth different perspectives and diversity to the advancement in the field of medicine,” says Dr. Tohme.

(by Brad Li, Masaki Lo)

Hirohisa Kato

Dr. Hirohisa Kato received his MD and PhD degrees from the Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, Japan. After his residency of general surgery, cardiovascular surgery, and thoracic surgery, he became an assistant professor at the Department of Surgery 2 in the Faculty of Medicine at Yamagata University, Japan. He also learned various surgical techniques at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Hospital, Strasbourg, France, with a fellowship from The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery. He has worked at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Okitama Public General Hospital since June 2020. His research interests include minimally invasive surgery, thoracoscopic sublobar resections, thoracoscopic segmentectomy, and small-sized lung cancer. Follow him on ResearchGate and LinkedIn.

In Dr. Kato’s opinion, it is essential that authors follow journal’s regulations. It is also crucial to simply describe the methods and try to accurately report the message to the readers. Most important of all, authors should provide novelties when submitting manuscripts. It would be even better if the content is of interest to the readers. In case reports, a clinical course should be clearly and precisely described. An original article should be described using appropriate statistical methods. In clinical trials, authors should show coordination with co-authors in addition of the above.

Dr. Kato believes that it is natural to have biases in analyzing surgical data as each patient has individual characteristics. Surgeons can try to unify the surgical techniques and skills. In order to avoid these biases, the provided techniques should be simplified and easily accepted by any surgeons when the proposed techniques would be reported.

“While surgeons have always performed surgery based on evidence concerning disorders, they have to perform surgery with questions in view of poor evidence. I therefore believe that such questions should be solved with academic research, and the process and resolution of that academic research are the greatest motivation for surgeons and researchers,” says Dr. Kato.

(by Brad Li, Masaki Lo)

Kyle Miletic

Dr. Kyle Miletic is a cardiac surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, specializing in complex aortic surgery, heart and lung transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. He earned his medical degree from Wayne State University and completed his thoracic and cardiovascular surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic. At Henry Ford, Dr. Miletic serves as Senior Staff Surgeon and Co-Director of the Comprehensive Aortic Center. He performed Michigan’s first beating-heart transplant and continues to advance innovation in surgical techniques and patient care. His academic interests include optimizing outcomes in aortic surgery, mechanical circulatory support, and surgical education. Learn more about him here.

CCTS: What are the most commonly encountered difficulties in academic writing?

Dr. Miletic: One of the greatest challenges is translating complex clinical experiences and data into a narrative that is both rigorous and accessible. In medicine, we often deal with heterogeneous patient populations and multifactorial outcomes, which makes drawing clear conclusions difficult. Balancing scientific precision with clarity takes discipline. Another challenge is editing manuscripts written in part by residents and fellows, who may not yet have the full context or depth of understanding of the study. While this process is an important part of their education, it often requires substantial revision to align the manuscript with the intended scientific message. Time is another persistent obstacle. I always feel clinical responsibilities and teaching being more urgent, so writing can easily fall behind. Finally, collaboration across multiple authors can be demanding, as aligning perspectives, revisions, and deadlines requires persistence and diplomacy.

CCTS: The burden of being a scientist/doctor is heavy. How do you allocate time to write papers?

Dr. Miletic: Writing requires intentional carving out of protected time. I treat it like an operation on my schedule. It gets blocked, prioritized, and respected. I often use early mornings or quieter weekends to focus when distractions are minimal. I also keep a running list of ideas and fragments from the operating room, teaching sessions, or clinical encounters on a white board in my office. By the time I sit down, I’m not starting from scratch. Often, I already have the seeds of a paper ready to shape.

CCTS: What is fascinating about academic writing?

Dr. Miletic: What fascinates me most is that writing is a way of making ideas permanent. Surgery is immediate and tangible, but academic writing ensures that the lessons learned, the innovations developed, and even the failures are preserved for others to build upon. I also find it rewarding that a single paper can ripple outward. It might end up guiding a colleague’s approach in another hospital, informing a trainee’s education, or even contributing to the evidence that shapes guidelines. Writing bridges the very personal world of the operating room with the broader scientific community, and that sense of continuity is deeply motivating.

(by Brad Li, Masaki Lo)