Dr. Rukmini (Vinaya) Rednam On 5 Things You Need To Create A Successful Career As A Plastic Surgeon

An Interview With Jake Frankel

Never stop learning or innovating: Plastic surgery is an ever-evolving field. To stay on top of the latest techniques you have to be willing to be a forever student. This doesn’t just mean follow what others have described but you have to learn to think outside of the box and create yourself. Many of the techniques I used early on in my career have completely changed. I learned newer ways to achieve better outcomes and through my own innovations have achieved better results for my patients.

As part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Rukmini (Vinaya) Rednam, MD, FACS, board certified plastic & reconstructive surgeon.

Dr. Rukmini (Vinaya) Rednam, known by her patients as the Confidence Doc®, is an esteemed board-certified plastic surgeon serving the communities of Houston and The Woodlands, TX. She is one of the founding members of My Houston Surgeons, a premier plastic surgery group practice in Texas. She specializes in aesthetic surgery of the face, breast, and body and well as microsurgical breast reconstruction. She has a special interest in facial rejuvenation and body contouring after massive weight loss.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”? What led you to this very interesting career?

I come from a large family that has multiple generations of physicians, both men and women. So, from an early age, I had a lot of exposure to the medical field and realized how much I enjoyed both the science and joys of medical service and knew it would be something I’d want to pursue. I entered medical school thinking that I would become a pediatrician, like my grandmother. But I very quickly learned that my passion and personality lay in surgery. I had the opportunity to spend two weeks on plastic surgery my third year of medical school and I was smitten. I loved the science, the art, and the creativity of the specialty. I never looked back. From that moment on, everything I did was to position myself to be the best candidate I could be to get into the competitive field. I was lucky enough to match into the University of Kentucky Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency my fourth year of medical school. I spent 6 years there and then an additional year at the University of Florida to do an additional aesthetic fellowship. From there, I moved to Houston, TX where I have been practicing for the last 9 years. While I didn’t set out to become a plastic surgeon from the start, every day reminds me that it’s where I belong.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I wish I had written down all the interesting stories I’ve had over time, there have been a lot! But one that shocked me, and was a first for me, was when I had a patient come to see me for a tummy tuck. She told me that she was planning to let her husband know she was getting a hysterectomy. This was not a procedure she was planning to have at the same time, instead that is just what she was going to let him know. Since it was her business and I never actually ever met him, and didn’t have to be dishonest, we proceeded. She looked amazing after and “miraculously” her “hysterectomy” also left her with a smaller waistline and a contoured abdomen. You can’t make this up.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the funniest mistakes that happened when I first started was not mine but happened to me! It was my first time operating at a new hospital and the operating nurse came up to me and started complaining about how Dr. Rednam seemed really picky and wanted to do things differently than the other plastics surgeons from what she heard. Clearly, she didn’t realize that the petite lady In the OR she was complaining to was Dr. Rednam! In this situation, I could have pulled a “stereotypical” surgeon move and gotten angry and made a scene. I chose not to. Instead, I agreed that Dr. Rednam seemed like a handful, then laughing, introduced myself. The nurse was mortified but I made a joke out of it and lightened the atmosphere. The surgeries went great that day and mood of the room was light.

Had I picked to embarrass the nurse or call her out the whole day would have been uncomfortable, and she would have likely felt really bad. There was no point to that. I chose to make it a joke and keep it light and patient focused. This is how I always handle these types of situations in the OR now. I’ve learned not to focus on small mistakes because we take care of our patient’s best when we work together as a team and have some fun while we are at it.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?

I recently completed my first art exhibition! With the help of @jadeelizabethphotography and @lyla_visuals we were able to tell the stories of 20+ patients of mine through photography and video. Every person who comes to see me has a story worth sharing. Whether a trans patient, a massive weight loss patient, a mother of two or breast cancer patient the common factor that unites us all is that we want to be happy and feel confident. We wanted to share their stories in a way that had never been done and I feel we succeeded in showing that their procedures were just a small part of the amazing individuals they all are!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I couldn’t do what I do and achieve the success I have without my husband, Ethan. We are both physicians and successful in our specialties, but I can say with certainty he has always put my career goals and dreams first. He is my number one fan and supports me in not only being able to balance work and home life with our two daughters but pushing me to never give up. I work long hours and he picks the kids up almost every day from school so that I don’t have to cut my workday short. He’s my go to guy for bouncing ideas off of, and there isn’t an article I’ve written or a presentation I’ve given that he hasn’t proofread or giving me feedback on. He’s not a social media kind of person, but he has spent hours learning how to edit videos and finding social media ideas for me to have a successful account!

Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?

While I know many people would site inspirational books or biographies or life stories of famous physicians or entrepreneurs, the Harry Potter series had a very positive impact on me. The series came out when I was going through my surgical residency. It’s a difficult time and can push you to both your mental and physical limits. My best friend from college would send me every new book as soon as it was published, and I loved getting that package over the years. For that short amount of time, I escaped into the fantasy world and had a nice break from some grueling training years. When I graduated, at my chief roast, they quoted me as saying that I was only hanging around until I got my letter from Hogwarts.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I am particularly proud of my work with my breast cancer patients. While I hope all my work brings joy and confidence to my patients, I feel the work I do for my breast cancer patients has been a way for me to truly bring goodness to the world. These women are pushed to their limits and are fighting for their lives and when they come through, they just want to feel whole and like a part of their pre-cancer selves. The skills I have learned and honed over time have let me restore these women in some way and in turn help heal them and their families. I tell my cancer patients that I hope to be the “silver lining” on their cloud.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?

“Do your duty, do not worry about the fruits” This is a paraphrased quote from the Sanskrit poem, the Bhagavad Gita. It holds so much meaning to me that it is my one and only tattoo. It can be interpreted in many ways but for me, it has always been something that grounds me. There are many things in life that can distract us from our purpose, but I do believe we all have a true purpose in this life and if we make that our focus, we cannot be led astray. My work as a plastic surgeon and my life as a mother are two important parts of me; I believe they both make me whole and are part of my purpose. As long as I remember that, I don’t feel I can get off track even with new adventures and pursuits.

Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Successful Career As A Plastic Surgeon’’ and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Never stop learning or innovating: Plastic surgery is an ever-evolving field. To stay on top of the latest techniques you have to be willing to be a forever student. This doesn’t just mean follow what others have described but you have to learn to think outside of the box and create yourself. Many of the techniques I used early on in my career have completely changed. I learned newer ways to achieve better outcomes and through my own innovations have achieved better results for my patients.
2. Always put your patient’s first: To be successful as a plastic surgeon, you have to truly mean this. People seek me out because I am honest about how important the wishes and safety of my patients are to me. Without patients to care for, there is not success as a plastic surgeon. I start my consults not asking people what is wrong with them but what they personally want to achieve.
3. Invest in yourself: This to me means taking the time to learn about the business of plastic surgery. Whether you are an academic or private practice plastic surgeon you should understand how billing works, how marketing works, where what you collect goes and how the day to day of the practice runs. If you just trust others and don’t take the time to educate yourself on these matters, you doing yourself a disservice. I do not have an MBA, nor have I taken any formal business or marketing classes. But what I did was observe and learn from others, find good mentors, and made marketing and business decisions on solid facts.
4. Build relationships: It’s not enough to be a good surgeon alone. You need to surround yourself with staff and colleagues who share your vision and work ethic. Throughout the years I have built an amazing team who I can rely on to deliver the best care to our patients. It took time to find them, but I worked to cultivate good relationships with the nurses and medical assistants and extenders I work which has in turn only strengthen the success of my practice.
5. Get out of your comfort zone and take calculated risks: If you do what everyone else does you will never stand out. You may have a good career, but will it be as successful as it could be? Some of the biggest gains I have had as a plastic surgeon have been stepping out what I have always known and felt comfortable with and entering the unknown. One big area for me was social media. I am a private person and though I may not appear it, I am actually pretty introverted. Getting in front of a camera daily and putting myself out there initially terrified me. But I am so glad I took the chance and went for it. Social media has allowed potential patients and others to see me as I am and that has attracted so many individuals to my practice. It is the number one source of how I get new patients.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a plastic surgeon? Can you explain what you mean?

Where do I start?! Plastic surgery and plastic surgeons in my opinion overall still get a bad rap. Many people still look at plastic surgery as unfounded vanity, selfish, crazy, only for the ultra-wealthy and completely cosmetic. And plastic surgeons are the money hungry doctors who will do whatever a person wants even if it’s not in their best interest.

Sure, like any job there are outliers who fall into that category but the vast majority of doctors who went into plastic surgery did so to restore and create confidence in our patients. We are the artists of the surgical world and love finding creative solutions to help our patients not only feel comfortable in their bodies but thrive! Whether they practice reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery or both, plastic surgeons deeply care about the happiness and wellness of our patients and always seek to bring about positive physical and mental benefits to them.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

My whole practice focuses on self-confidence and body positivity. That looks different for every person, and I would love to start a movement where people focus less on cutting others down and judging each other and instead focus on building each other up and learning to accept what makes people look and feel their most confident. Nothing is more beautiful or empowering than confidence!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

If I could pick anyone to have a private breakfast or lunch it would be Rihanna. While you can say she’s a musician and what would we have in common, the reason I admire her is her business prowess. She is smart, creative, inclusive, inspires confidence in others and lifts people up. She does all this why looking glam and confident, in the challenging beauty industry. These are all qualities and things I aspire to do in my line of work as well. Very few people discuss the fact that those of us in private practice are also business owners. We receive little to no training in business in medical school, at least during my time, so everything we learn about how to run our medical practice is self-taught. I have been very surprised over the years how much I love the business side of my work and how it has inspired me to search out for other entrepreneurial ventures.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Via my social media channels on IG: @dr.rednam and Tiktok: @dr.rednam

Thank you so much for these wonderful insights! We wish you continued success.