The Golden Scalpel: Bringing surgical residents together, one basketball game at a time

In 2022, two surgical residents at the University of Toronto launched the Golden Scalpel Tournament, bringing together divisions across the department of surgery to play basketball in the spirit of teamwork and friendly rivalry.

Now in its third year, the summer tournament is a much-anticipated event that promotes wellness, collaboration, and connection across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s surgical community.

Writer Julia Soudat caught up with the tournament’s founders and residents, Dr. Khizar Karim and Dr. Anser Daud, to talk basketball, surgery and lessons learned from this unique community event.

Tell me about yourselves. What made you want to pursue medicine, and what are you doing now?

Khizar: I grew up in the Greater Toronto Area and have been fortunate to complete both my medical school and residency at U of T. I’m currently a fourth-year general surgery resident.

I went into medicine because it allowed me to combine my interests in science, research and leadership — all while making a real difference in people’s lives, both individually and at a broader population level. As for why surgery — the short answer is that it’s collaborative, hands-on, and incredibly rewarding. You can directly change a patient’s course of disease — and honestly, it’s just fun.

Anser: I was born and raised in Toronto. My family immigrated to Canada in the late 1980s in search of a better life. In Canada, we were blessed with countless opportunities, whether for work, education or community life. My parents always instilled in my brother and me the values of serving one’s community and using one’s talents to help those who need it most. In that process, I decided that no career would be more fulfilling than medicine — which I think is a healthy mix between intellectual challenge and opportunity to help people day in and day out. I’m now a fourth-year resident in orthopaedic surgery, and in fact this year I’m the chief resident in our program at U of T.

What is the Golden Scalpel Tournament, and what inspired you to organize this event?

Khizar: We’ve both always been really active in sports and played in different leagues, including intramurals during medical school. Over time, we noticed there wasn’t much interaction between residents from different surgical divisions — everyone was busy in their own programs. We wanted to create something fun and low-stress that could bring everyone together outside the hospital. Sports have a way of breaking down barriers, so a tournament felt like the perfect way to do that.

We pitched the idea to our department chair, Dr. Carol Swallow, who was incredibly supportive, and our postgraduate director, Dr. Mojgan Hodaie, who connected us with key resources to make it happen.

We had a lot of help along the way to get this off the ground and keep it running — from many of our co-residents to medical students. All of them volunteered their time behind the scenes to pull everything together. It’s been amazing to see it grow year after year.

Why specifically basketball?

Anser: It started back in medical school. Khizar and I, with some friends, had spearheaded an interdivisional basketball tournament for MD students among the four academies at Temerty Medicine. When we were fortunate enough to match to residency, we noticed a gap. There were avenues for some other sports like hockey, golf and running, but not basketball.

Also, did you know basketball was invented by a Canadian — in fact, an Ontarian? Dr. James Naismith. Basketball is one of the true team sports in the sense that no one person can win alone. Everyone has a role on the court — just like in the OR — and it allows for a lot of participation, energy and fun. In my opinion, it has surged in popularity over recent years. If you were in Toronto in 2019, when the Raptors brought home the NBA championship, you know what I am talking about.

What have you learned over the past three years of organizing the tournament?

Khizar: First, we’ve learned just how competitive surgical residents can be! Some teams start planning their rosters and strategies months in advance.

From an organizer’s perspective, it’s taught us the importance of structure and planning — from scheduling and officiating to scorekeeping and ensuring fair play.

We’ve also learned how much people value these opportunities to connect outside of work, which motivates us to keep raising the bar every year. Building relationships with our colleagues who we see in the hospital every day is invaluable. Seeing people in basketball uniforms — rather than medical garb — really helps us humanize one another too. So many people have told us they look forward to the tournament, and that it’s an opportunity for wellness and a breath of fresh air in the midst of busy clinical responsibilities.

What has been challenging in putting this event together? How do you balance the demands of residency and organizing something like this?

Anser: The biggest challenge is probably the scheduling. You could argue that surgeons and surgery residents are some of the busiest people in the city. We spend a lot of time in the hospital, and even outside the hospital there are always competing interests — research days, graduation events, family, commitments and so on. It feels like there’s never a good time for it, but we are fortunate to have very passionate athletes in the department of surgery, and many people make time to be there every year.

As for us balancing residency commitments with organizing the tournament — yes it requires time, but we’re lucky to have a fantastic team. Faculty, residents and medical students have made many contributions over the past few years, without which the Golden Scalpel would not be possible. As with anything that’s worthwhile, a lot goes into planning, but seeing it all come together for our colleagues makes it absolutely worth it.

What has the turnout and feedback been like?

Khizar: The turnout has been incredible every year. We usually have around eight teams representing divisions like general surgery, plastic surgery, cardiac and vascular surgery, neurosurgery, orthopaedics — and even our friends in anesthesia and radiology join in.

The enthusiasm is unreal. Many faculty and fellows actually block off the date months in advance to make sure they can attend. The feedback has been so positive, it keeps us motivated to improve every year and make it even bigger and better.

Which surgical division has the best basketball players?

Khizar: Haha — well, I’m from general surgery, so my completely unbiased opinion is that we’ve got the best players. That said, orthopaedic surgery has taken home the trophy twice, and otolaryngology once, so I’ll let everyone else decide who really holds the title. But trust me — general surgery will be back.

Anser: I think the key takeaway from what he said there is that “orthopaedic surgery has taken home the trophy twice.” There’s no more for me to say.