Marcus Taylor1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, UK; 2CCTS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. CCTS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: ccts@amegroups.com
This interview can be cited as: Taylor M, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of CCTS: Dr. Marcus Taylor. Curr Chall Thorac Surg. 2025. Available from: https://ccts.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-ccts-dr-marcus-taylor.
Expert introduction
Dr. Marcus Taylor (Figure 1) is a specialty trainee in cardiothoracic surgery, currently working in the Northwest of England, UK. He graduated from Keele University in 2013 and completed a master’s in Surgical Sciences at Edinburgh University in 2016. He also became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2016 and entered higher specialty training in 2017. His clinical interests are adult cardiac surgery, cardiothoracic transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. He also has an interest in management and leadership and has completed an MBA in healthcare management.
His research interests are risk stratification and the use of big data to advance research in cardiothoracic surgery. He has completed a PhD at the University of Manchester exploring risk stratification in thoracic surgery and has published widely on the topic. His PhD research culminated in the development of a new risk stratification tool (the RESECT-90 model) anticipated to be used widely throughout the UK. He is also involved in a number of regional and national research collaboratives across the UK. He is an editorial board member and peer reviewer for multiple journals. He holds the position of honorary clinical lecturer at Edgehill University and honorary clinical research fellow at the University of Manchester.
Figure 1 Dr. Marcus Taylor
Interview
CCTS: What first drew you to the field of cardiothoracic surgery, and how did your early training shape your career?
Dr. Taylor: From a very early age I always had a fascination with the heart and once I had decided to pursue medicine as a career, I never really seriously considered any other area of practice. I was very lucky to be exposed to the full range of adult cardiothoracic surgery and cardiothoracic transplantation at a very early stage in my career. My early mentors impressed upon me the importance of good patient selection combined with operative technical excellence. Both are required to achieve successful outcomes.
CCTS: Your clinical interests span adult cardiac surgery, cardiothoracic transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. Could you elaborate on the specific aspects of these fields that you find most rewarding or challenging in your practice?
Dr. Taylor: Operative cardiac surgery is both challenging and rewarding, with success or failure often immediately apparent during the operation. I am drawn to transplantation due to its unique challenge of multidisciplinary team working and time-critical decision making at every stage of the pre-, intra-, and post-operative journey.
CCTS: You have completed a PhD focused on risk stratification in thoracic surgery, culminating in the development of the RESECT-90 model. How does the RESECT-90 model enhance decision-making in clinical practice, and how do you see it impacting surgery across the UK?
Dr. Taylor: It has long been anecdotally recognized that the Thoracoscore model does not accurately predict outcomes after thoracic surgery in the UK. Despite several publications highlighting this issue, national guidelines continue to advocate its use. Moreover, the second problem with current risk stratification is the emergence of 90-day mortality as a superior measure of perioperative mortality compared to in-hospital and/or 30-day mortality, the endpoints that the majority of existing models are designed to predict. The RESECT-90 model was developed to address both of these issues and more. Derived from and subsequently externally validated using large contemporary multi-centre databases, the model was developed by clinicians and statisticians to produce a tool that is sufficiently accurate to use in routine clinical practice without being too unwieldy or cumbersome to be practical. The increased accuracy of the model compared to existing tools empowers patients and clinicians with greater confidence that patients are not being inappropriately offered or declined lung resection surgery. Use of the model in routine practice is supported by the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) in the UK, and we hope that its routine use will improve patient selection and perioperative outcomes and ultimately contribute to greater lung cancer survival in the UK.
CCTS: Your research involves the use of big data to advance cardiothoracic surgery. How do you envision the future of big data in cardiothoracic surgery? What potential do you see for data-driven approaches in transforming clinical practices and patient care?
Dr. Taylor: Clinical guidelines are frequently underpinned by results of industry-funded randomized trials (RCTs). However, a key drawback of RCTs is their stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria, which means that they are not necessarily reflective of real-world practice. Therefore, they provide limited guidance for clinicians on how best to manage patients who fall outside of these specific trial specifications. These shortcomings can be mitigated by the use of large-scale registry databases. Often with prolonged follow-up periods, these big datasets include ‘all comers’ and thus are much more reflective of ‘real world’ practice. As concerns with the applicability of RCT data persist, the role of big data will continue to grow. The increased utilization of these datasets represents an opportunity to drive improved patient outcomes for a much wider cohort and a greater proportion of patients being considered for cardiothoracic surgery.
CCTS: You are involved in several regional and national research collaboratives across the UK. How do these collaboratives help drive advancements in cardiothoracic surgery, and what has been your role in these initiatives?
Dr. Taylor: I have found working with regional collaboratives to be particularly educational with greater opportunities to be involved with all aspects of healthcare research. I was one of the founding members of the Northwest Thoracic Surgery Collaborative, which is a UK regional research group drawing on the combined data, resources, and knowledge of multiple centers in the same geographical region. This pooling of data and resources allows us to undertake more meaningful and well-powered research with an improved likelihood of having a positive impact on clinical practice. This regional experience provided me with the tools to contribute effectively to research at a national level. In addition to participating in several working groups for cardiothoracic research in the UK, I have also overseen a pan-UK project involving data collection from over 12,000 patients across 12 UK centers, which was one of the central projects of my PhD research.
CCTS: You have an interest in healthcare management and leadership. In your opinion, what are the most pressing leadership challenges in cardiothoracic surgery today, and how can the next generation of leaders be better prepared to address them?
Dr. Taylor: Appointing experienced clinicians to hospital leadership and management positions has the potential to transform the delivery of healthcare across the globe. However, it does not necessarily follow that an effective and competent clinician will automatically also be an effective and competent manager. The absence of healthcare professionals with the necessary qualifications and credentials to function effectively as both a manager and a clinician is one of the most pressing issues within medicine today. Facilitating clinicians acquiring formal leadership and management qualifications such as an MBA degree would empower the next generation of senior clinicians to more effectively combine their roles as both clinicians and leaders.
CCTS: As an editorial board member and peer reviewer for various journals, how do you approach the peer review process, and what trends in cardiothoracic surgery research do you find most promising or impactful?
Dr. Taylor: Peer review is an important and challenging process and needs to maintain both objective and subjective measures of analysis. The emergence of large registry-based data series providing conflicting outcomes to high-profile industry-funded RCTs is an important trend that should not be overlooked. Journals should publish well-conducted, robust research from all sources, to allow results and practices from established and developing centers of healthcare to be available to all.
CCTS: As an Editorial Board Member of CCTS, what are your expectations and aspirations for the journal?
Dr. Taylor: The title of the journal offers a clue as to its general ethos and the scope of material considered for publication. Whilst large-scale multi-center studies unapologetically receive the most attention from flagship journals, the development and publication of new techniques and approaches remain pivotal for the advancement of the specialty. Moreover, local practice and outcomes are often informative and educational and similarly worthy of publication and review. For that reason, I hope that CCTS continues to champion studies outlining high-quality and innovative work in thoracic disease.