When Leonel Hunt, MD, began traveling to Africa through the Hunt Foundation, he expected to teach. He did not expect to rethink how he practiced medicine.
Dr. Hunt had built a career at the forefront of spine surgery. An attending surgeon at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai’s Spine Center and Orthopedic Center and partner at Commons Clinic, he has spent his days surrounded by the technologies that define modern American healthcare: advanced imaging, sophisticated implants, navigation systems and highly specialized teams.
Then he started operating in places where many of those things did not exist.
“We started realizing how much waste we actually have here in the U.S.,” Dr. Hunt told Becker’s. “How many things we throw away just because.” The observation was not criticism. It was perspective.
Over more than a decade of international medical missions, Dr. Hunt has worked alongside physicians in countries where access to specialized care remains limited, infrastructure is often unreliable and resources that American hospitals take for granted can be scarce.
The experience changed how he thinks about surgery, technology, education and what ultimately determines whether patients do well.
“The majority of the stuff we use every day are luxuries, not necessities,” he said.
The question that changed the mission
The Hunt Foundation was established by Dr. Hunt and his brother, Cedars-Sinai neurosurgeon Gabriel Hunt, MD, with a straightforward goal: bring medical expertise, education and support to underserved communities around the world. The foundation’s early work focused heavily on direct patient care.
Teams traveled to countries including Gabon and Ethiopia, performing surgeries for patients who otherwise had little access to specialized treatment.
The work was meaningful. But over time, Dr. Hunt found himself asking a difficult question.
“If I go to a place like Gabon or Ethiopia and operate on 20 people in a week, what did I really accomplish if there are 110 million in the country?” he said.
The answer forced a shift in thinking. Those patients benefited. Their families benefited. But the country itself remained largely unchanged. Real impact, he realized, would come from helping local physicians care for thousands of patients long after visiting surgeons returned home.
That realization transformed the foundation’s mission. Instead of focusing primarily on procedures, the organization increasingly invested in education, training programs, simulation labs, curriculum development and long-term relationships with local physicians.
“The only way to make a sustainable difference is to teach,” Dr. Hunt said.
What technology can’t replace
The experience also reinforced something Dr. Hunt worries medicine sometimes forgets. Technology matters. But technology is not the same thing as expertise. Over the course of his career, he has witnessed an extraordinary transformation in spine surgery. Robotics, navigation systems and advanced imaging have expanded what surgeons can do and improved precision in countless ways.
He embraces those advances. But he also trained in an era before many of them existed. “I’ve been fortunate to be old enough to remember when a lot of these technical advances didn’t exist, but young enough to have seen the revolution,” he said.
That perspective becomes especially valuable in hospitals where those technologies may be unavailable. Surgeons still have to rely on anatomy. They still have to rely on judgment. And they still have to solve problems when technology fails.
“We used to get great outcomes before all of this,” Dr. Hunt said. “The robots and image guidance are wonderful, but we were getting great outcomes before that.”
The concern extends to surgical education. As technology becomes more deeply embedded in training, younger physicians may have fewer opportunities to develop the foundational skills previous generations were forced to master.
“Many residents now don’t know how to put in implants without image guidance,” he said. For Dr. Hunt, the goal is not to reject innovation. It is to ensure surgeons never become dependent on it.
The surgery he’ll never forget
One case in Gabon still stands out. Dr. Hunt was operating when the power suddenly went out. The room went dark. The equipment stopped working. The procedure, already complex, was far from finished. Many surgeons would describe the moment as a nightmare. Dr. Hunt describes it differently.
“We taped a flashlight to my head and finished the surgery,” he said. The story has become one of his favorite examples of a lesson he believes extends far beyond global health work. Medicine is ultimately about adaptability. Technology can make surgeons better. It cannot replace resourcefulness.
“You have to be able to improvise,” he said. The operation was completed successfully. The patient did well. And Dr. Hunt left with an even deeper appreciation for what actually matters in an operating room.
The most important skill in medicine
When asked what most influences patient outcomes, Dr. Hunt did not mention surgical technique. He did not mention implants. He did not mention robotics. Instead, he pointed to something much simpler.
“The doctor-patient relationship,” he said immediately.
Years of practicing in dramatically different healthcare environments have only strengthened that belief. Technical expertise matters. But trust matters more.
Patients want honesty. They want communication. They want realistic expectations. Too often, he said, healthcare becomes consumed by technology while overlooking the human relationship that sits at the center of every outcome.
“I can teach you how to operate,” Dr. Hunt said. “I can’t teach you to be a good person.” For him, that distinction may be the most important lesson medicine has to offer.
What he hopes younger physicians learn
Dr. Hunt often encourages colleagues to become involved in global health work, not because it makes them better volunteers, because it makes them better physicians.
Working in resource-limited environments strips medicine down to its essentials. The distractions disappear. The bureaucracy disappears. The technology often disappears.
What remains are the fundamentals. Clinical judgment. Problem solving. Teaching. Service. And caring for another human being.
Dr. Hunt shares this lesson regarding his international work.
Physicians in the United States spend a great deal of time discussing what healthcare lacks.
Better reimbursement. Better infrastructure. Better technology. Better systems.
Years spent working in underserved regions gave him a different perspective.
“If you’re privileged enough to do what we do in this country, and it is your purpose, you’ve already won,” he said.
The farther he traveled from American healthcare, the more he came to appreciate the opportunity to help someone when they need it most. Everything else, he believes, is secondary.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
