Meet Robert Cina, MD, Our New Chair of Pediatric Surgery

Robert Cina, MD, joins Children’s Hospital Colorado as the new Chair of Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Cina comes to Children’s Colorado from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston where he performed pediatric surgery for 18 years and was most recently Medical Staff President. He completed his fellowship and residency through the Harvard system of hospitals. Dr. Cina shares what drew him to medicine and his plans for leading the Department of Pediatric Surgery.

What made you interested in medicine in the first place?

Before I stepped into the NICU as a surgeon, I was in the NICU as a patient — I spent the first three months of my life in the NICU. Before I knew anything about hospitals, surgery, medicine or what it means to take care of a critically ill child and their family, I lived the impact of pediatric care before I had the privilege of giving it. That shaped the way I approached my career because my primary motivation for pursuing medicine was to pay forward the compassion and care those doctors and nurses showed me during that critical time of my life.

After being in the field for a while, do you have the same focus of simply paying it forward, or has it shifted a bit?

I learned early in my career that most patients and families spend far more time during an inpatient stay interacting with the hospital than they do with their surgeon. It led me to wonder how I could influence the quality of care they received, not only through my direct, personal care, but also through work to make the system safer and more reliable for everyone. This required making the patient and their family the center of everything we do.

Initially, I focused heavily on surgical quality and safety, working to develop systems of care that ensured patients received the right care, at the right time, from the right people. Many think of "cutting-edge care" as providing the newest, most technologically advanced procedure. To me, innovation also means raising the floor of quality through a thoughtful, disciplined approach that ensures the essential elements of care are delivered consistently for every patient.

Over time, I came to appreciate that those improvements are never the result of a single surgeon's efforts. Surgery is a team sport. Every pediatric surgical patient relies on dozens of individuals across multiple disciplines (most of which are not surgical), and their experience is shaped by every interaction along that journey. That realization broadened my focus from improving individual clinical processes to building high-performing teams and stronger systems of care.

You mentioned something interesting — many look at raising the ceiling of quality but you think it is possibly more important to raise the floor of quality — can you tell us more about that?

When we talk about elevating care, there's a spectrum of things we can address. At one end, it's a highly specialized procedure or new technology that allows us to treat a disease in ways we couldn't before. That is incredibly important and exciting work. However, at the other end, there are many fundamental aspects of what we do, which may seem basic or routine, but collectively have an enormous impact on outcomes. These are critical items that we must do consistently, for every patient, every time, to ensure that their journey through the hospital is safe, effective and efficient. While attention to these things may seem less glamorous, they often have the greatest impact on the greatest number of patients.

In surgery, that means getting the basics right every time through standardized approaches to things ranging from maintaining sterile technique, communicating effectively with the team and ensuring there are checks that ensure no step is missed. 

How do you develop the team mentality and help support your team?

The three guiding principles I consistently communicate to my team are kindness, transparency and fairness. Whenever one of us faces a difficult decision or uncertain question, I want the team to not only view the situation through the lens of those principles but also always assume the best intent of others. Kindness creates an environment where people feel respected and valued. Fairness builds trust by clarifying expectations and applying accountability consistently.  Finally, transparency is important because it helps people understand not just how decisions are made, but how and why those decisions are reached, especially when the outcome may be difficult.

How does that team philosophy affect your work today and influence your approach to your new position as the Chair of Pediatric Surgery?

My philosophy around teamwork and leadership is influenced by my experience serving as the Medical Staff President at the Medical University of South Carolina during COVID-19. During that time, I realized that building, recruiting and developing a strong team was essential to providing best-in-class care for patients and families. I also learned that one more crucial ingredient is required — a physician leader's most important charge is to take care of the team.  We had to create an environment where people felt supported and able to do their best work despite extraordinary challenges. That experience reinforced my belief that when physician leaders take care of their teams, those teams are able, in turn, to provide exceptional care for children and families who entrust us with what they treasure most in life.

What attracted you to Children’s Colorado?

From the minute I stepped into the atrium of Children's Colorado, I knew this was a special place. The first person I interacted with was one of our liaisons at the front desk, and from that interaction, I could tell Children's Colorado was different. I was able to witness the importance of the mission through everyone I met — they spoke passionately about serving the patients and families, about their dedication to children, their regional responsibility, their ambition for its clinical programs and the willingness of the community to invest in what children and families need. I found the spirit of Children's Colorado in their words and thought it was absolutely amazing.

It's evident when you walk through the building and you see how many resources are dedicated to not just the medical portion of the patient's experience, but their entire journey through our hospital. Things like the innovation lab on the 2^nd floor with the 3D printers that patients can use during their recovery — I mean, that is cool. The fact that we have these amazing therapy dogs highlights that Children’s Colorado is singularly focused on taking care of the whole patient rather than just their medical condition.

The surgeons in my division are amazing individuals. Looking at the past year alone, they have seen more than 10,000 patients in clinic, healed more than 5,000 children through surgical procedures and cared for over 2,000 critically injured patients alongside our partners in the emergency department through our trauma program. They published more than 55 peer-reviewed journal articles, received internal and external funding, and were national scholars through the American Pediatric Surgery Association. While doing these amazing things, they continued to teach the next generation of surgeons through our education programs which develop fellows and countless residents. It is an honor to join this group of amazing surgeons.

What do you hope to bring to Children’s Colorado and the Department of Pediatric Surgery?

I want to build on the amazing successes of our team and empower them to become the leaders of patient-centered, innovative, pediatric surgical care through knowledge, discovery, education and dissemination.

My hope is that people come here and say, “I trained here, I was mentored here, I found my purpose here, and now I want to spend the rest of my career here, advancing surgery and making it safer for every patient we serve.”

I'm so excited to be able to develop programs that align with the mission here at Children’s Colorado, knowing that we already have the capability, curiosity, innovation and commitment to patients and their families. All the pieces are here, and when they come together, we have the power to advance children's health and help us deliver the best care in ways we have not yet imagined.