Catch up with Daniel Kollmorgen, MD
I arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the summer of 1990 and moved into the Foothill Place apartments. I spent my first week taking ACLS & ATLS with my fellow categorical interns: Peter Baay, Keith Cole, Daryl Eckes, Terri Marty, and Steve Seffense. We quickly developed close relationships and these people became my local family over the next few years. If I remember correctly, we all arrived single but in the subsequent years, we were each engaged, married, got dogs, got SUVs, and had our first children! Our clinical experience was wonderful: multiple hospitals, a wide variety of cases, no competing fellows, and multiple faculty members who cared about their patients AND my development as a surgeon. My father was a long-time general surgery faculty member at one of the best community residency programs in the Midwest. I remember how impressed he was when we discussed the breadth, depth, and autonomy I experienced.
In addition to a wonderful clinical experience there were so many adventures along the way that I hesitate to mention but here are a few: the McGreevy roller coaster, after hours cases with the Napper, sailing / dumping the catamaran with Dirk, Saturday basketball at the VA, impersonating referring docs with ‘trainwreck’ transfers on the holidays, operating on the Prophet, and, of course, the Chiefs Party – with associated roasts…)! The shared experiences during those years bound us together so well that I can easily pick up a conversation with fellow residents even if we haven’t talked in years. The highlight of those years was getting engaged to Karen during my intern year and married in the fall of 1991. Our first child, Kellen, was born at Holy Cross Hospital in 1995. I spent a year doing vascular surgery research and graduated in 1996 with Peter, Terri, Mark Savarise, and Bob Taylor.
After residency, we moved to Buffalo, NY for a 2-year surgical oncology fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It was eye-opening to operate and compare knowledge with fellows from other well-known institutions. I think my Utah training traveled well; within 3 months I was named one of the Chief Administrative Fellows. My daughter, Anna, was born in Buffalo at the end of my first year. To this day she wonders why we go back to Utah so often but never visit the city of her birth!
At the end of the fellowship, we thought long and hard about moving back to Salt Lake (in fact we have looked at those options several times in the last 25 years) but decided to move back to Iowa to join my father’s group that had morphed into a physician-owned multi-specialty group. I joined that group – The Iowa Clinic – and was their only surgical oncologist for nearly 25 years. During my time there, I took on a variety of roles: assistant program director, medical director of the cancer center, associate medical director of the physician group, chairman of surgery, and served on national committees for the Commission on Cancer and Society of Surgical Oncology. I really enjoyed teaching surgery residents, taking on big cases, coordinating multidisciplinary cancer care, and helping to solve complex system problems that arise in private practice involving multiple independent specialty groups.
In 2021, I began to feel restless and dissatisfied with my life and practice. Karen and I were now empty nesters and I had so many non-medical things I wanted to do with my life. I spent over a year trying to negotiate a less-than-full-time position where I could continue in the areas of interest but regain some control over my schedule. When those discussions proved unproductive, I took a leap and resigned in January of 2022. I left that position, updated my ATLS training, and started as an acute care surgicalist in Bozeman, MT. My new schedule was 7 days straight on call (24/7) followed by 3 weeks off. I was able to focus on things I’d ignored for a long time: relationships, sleep, nutrition, exercise, and leisure travel. In my free time, I created my own consulting LLC and started a project called Beyond Surgery. My vision is a process that focuses on improving the lives of surgeons outside of the hospital. I developed a curriculum and held a ‘trial’ Beyond Surgery retreat in the fall of 2022 with 10 surgeons and 2 moderators from around the country. From my view it was a successful proof of concept, had a positive impact on the participants, and served as great therapy for my career change. I am still tinkering with the details and delivery but still feel it is a very timely and important topic for all of us.
I enjoyed Bozeman and the local surgical group very much. I even referred some cases to the University of Utah – the department enjoys a strong reputation across the Mountain West. After my first year, we had some detailed discussions about developing a more robust cancer program in that fast-growing region. Unfortunately, the health system was going through some major administrative changes precluding a commitment that worked for all parties.
In May of this year, I gave up my acute care gig and started a position at a critical access hospital one hour from my home in Des Moines. My new position is 50% clinical and 50% administrative. I am building a cancer program, collaborating to improve access to surrounding underserved areas, and aiming to be the smallest COC-approved cancer center in the Midwest. Experiencing a change in surgical positions and locations at this point in my life has opened my eyes to the variety of ways one can practice surgery, care for patients, and improve the lives around us. In each setting, I’ve been able to enjoy my priorities: teaching, solving problems, and caring for cancer patients.
My years as a general surgery resident at the University of Utah were some of the most difficult, stressful, formative, and rewarding times in my life. When I meet, interview, or network with a Utah General Surgery graduate from my generation, I know I am talking to a smart, tough, grounded, and skilled surgeon. I appreciate Dr Nelson’s continued efforts to maintain contact with the surgical alumni and develop a sense of continuity/history among the graduates of the program – 27 years later these connections continue to add meaning and value to my life.