Department of Surgery Image

surgery imageIn creating a new image for the Department of Surgery, I wanted to draw on our core values which are: 1) Surgery in all of its facets including technical innovation, and education; and 2) Science, given our rich history of accomplishments amongst our faculty, and the emphasis we have traditionally placed on our surgeon scientist training program, which dates back to Dr William Gallie’s tenure as Chairman. 

In the image, you will see two suture needles that are slightly offset, one to the other, in space. The suture needles represent our emphasis and focus on the art and practice of surgery. The suture threads are actually depicted by a double helix of double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with appropriate nucelotide base pair cross - linking strands. The DNA represents our focus on surgical science and includes our research work from molecule to man. 

As we created the image in its final form, it did not escape my notice that the colours of the DNA strands, red and blue, were connected by cross linking bands that were white, making the logo highly reminiscent of the colours of the archetypal “barber pole” from antiquity where blue represented the veins, red represented the arteries, and white was the background that accentuated the spiral of the red and blue stripes. 

The story of this image is one that I hope will resonate particularly well with all Divisions in the Department of Surgery.