Surgeons share parallel journeys

The parallel paths that surgeons Kamran Idrees and Aimal Khan took to combine their skills in an operating room in Nashville, Tennessee, took several decades and more than 7,000 miles.

Khan, MD, assistant professor of Surgery, remembers his first visit to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in 2020 when he was being interviewed as a potential faculty member.  

He and Idrees met for dinner and learned that they’d both come from the same state in northern Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the same town (Peshawar). In fact, they also both attended the same highly regarded military boarding high school (Cadet College Kohat), nearly an hour’s drive from their hometown.  

 Then, in mirror step, they attended the same medical school (Aga Khan University) nearly 900 miles from Peshawar in southernmost Pakistan. The two even completed a portion of their surgical training in the United States at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center. Idrees completed a general surgery residency there in 2008, and Khan completed a minimally invasive and robotic gastrointestinal surgery fellowship there in 2019. 

 “The funny thing is that we met at VUMC for the first time in our lives,” Khan said. “Dr. Idrees is 14 years my senior. The more he and I chatted, the more we found out we had in common. He said, ‘So basically, you’ve been following me around for 15 years. Everyplace I go, you go too!’  

“Now, we frequently collaborate in research and clinical care of colorectal cancer patients. It’s the beauty of the American dream.”  

 Asked if the two surgeon’s eerily similar backgrounds are beneficial during their collaborations, Khan laughed. 

 “Well, sometimes the nurses can’t understand us!” he said.  

 Joking aside, the pair acknowledge that the similarity of their paths has proven serendipitous for their work together, both in the operating room and in the clinic.  

“Knowing each other’s credentials and knowing the journey we had to take to come to this place, I think gives us a sense of trust with each other,” Khan said. 

Idrees looks at their backgrounds and sees two men who have been laser-focused from the start to find success.

“It’s very rare the way our paths have gone,” Idrees said. “The road to become a surgeon is not easy in the first place. It takes a lot of perseverance. We didn’t go to Ivy League schools. We had to make our way and prove ourselves at each step to be successful. We both did surgical residencies. Then, although most people do one fellowship, we both did two. I did a surgical oncology fellowship at University of Pittsburgh, then a liver and pancreas surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. He did a minimally invasive surgery fellowship at UAB and a colorectal surgery fellowship at Baylor. We are both driven by the same thing: to do the very best for our patients and to move the field forward.” 

Khan is grateful his journey connected with Idrees’ at VUMC so they can work together.

“For us, it began at that first dinner — just hanging out and getting to know each other,” Khan said. “We go to each other’s homes; we invite each other over for dinner. My son’s birthday is coming up soon, and Dr. Idrees will be there. We’re just so lucky to be working in this place, at Vanderbilt, which helps give us the foundation to build these relationships on. These relationships then act like a primer to help our patients.”