Meet Thoracic Surgery Physician Assistant Bryan Anderson, PA

Physician assistant Bryan Anderson, PA, helps provides patients with as much information and comfort before and after their thoracic surgery. He sees patients from lung cancer to benign esophageal disorders. As a people person, he drives to make strong relationships with his patients.

Transcript:
My name is Bryan Anderson. I'm one of the physician assistants in the thoracic surgery department here at UVA. In thoracic surgery, we see a wide variety of patients, from benign disease to cancer-related illnesses. We primarily deal with lung cancer, esophageal cancer, many benign esophageal disorders—things of that nature.

Within the thoracic surgery department, there is a physician assistant-run clinic. That's something similar to a survivorship clinic. So we see patients who are undergoing long-term surveillance after their surgery. That's somewhere that I feel we do a great job and provide guidance and education, and context to all of the information that can sometimes be overwhelming.

I would say that I'm a people person by nature. I love interacting with patients, and the patient connection is kind of what fuels me in my job. Every interaction is a shared experience. So my job as a PA is to provide as much context and information, and education as I can to the patient. We see people for quite a long period of time and often develop really good relationships.