Yahir Santiago-Lastra, MD
Reconstructive pelvic surgeon, surgical educator, Clinical Professor at UC San Diego Health.
Surgery, teaching, leadership, storytelling, and the creative life that keeps the work human.
Here you will find clinical teaching, essays on academic medicine, podcast work, and art beyond the operating room.
A Working Grimoire of Lived Experiences
For centuries, people kept commonplace books to preserve the ideas, experiences, and fragments of wisdom they did not want to lose. I think of this site as my own modern grimoire: a place to gather what grounds me, what I wish I had known earlier in my career, and what helps me remain connected to purpose, creativity, and everyday joy.
Clinical Care and Contact
Clinical care remains rooted at UC San Diego Health. This space is for reflection, teaching, exploration, and connection.
For appointments and clinical information, visit my UC San Diego Health profile. For speaking, podcast, mentorship, and collaboration inquiries, use the contact page.
Archive
Step Inside the Armoire
Four doors into the clinical teaching, essays, conversations, and creative work gathered here.
Field Notes
Essays on the hidden curriculum of academic medicine and surgical life: judgment, culture, identity, and the lessons often carried in silence.
Read Field Notes →The Surgical Atlas
Educational resources on reconstructive urology, urinary function, anatomy, and surgical technique.
Open the atlas →The Junior Faculty Files
Conversations about medicine, work, identity, leadership, relationships, and the lives we build around them.
Listen to the podcast →Beyond Medicine
Art, folklore, books, celebrations, and the creative life outside the operating room.
Follow the thread →Why This Space Exists
Medicine is a collective craft. I use this space to share practical knowledge, hard-won lessons, and questions that help us do the work together.