Colin G. Knight, MD

A board-certified pediatric surgeon at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, on Florida's Treasure Coast.

About

Colin G. Knight is a board-certified pediatric surgeon at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, on Florida's Treasure Coast. He is a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the Florida State University College of Medicine and at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

Knight earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his medical degree at the University of Virginia, where he also completed his surgical internship. He then served four years on active duty in the United States Air Force as a flight surgeon, work that shaped his interest in operating-room safety and the subject of his essays here. He completed his general surgery residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, including a research year in robotic pediatric surgery at Children's Hospital of Michigan, where he later completed his pediatric surgery fellowship.

His research spans minimally invasive and robotic pediatric surgery as well as the management of pediatric appendicitis, with work appearing in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, the Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques, and Archives of Surgery. His practice website is ped-surg.com, and he shares updates on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

Latest articles

Physician voices

Surgeon fatigue needs a fit-for-duty check, not hour limits

Colin G. Knight, MD

November 2, 2026Nov 2, 2026

Just after one in the morning on August 6, 1997, Korean Air Flight 801 was descending toward Guam in rain. The captain had been scheduled for a longer trip to Dubai, but he was not rested for it. The airline gave him the shorter run to Guam instead. About twenty minutes before the end, the cockpit voice recorder caught him talking about crew rest rules, and then, in a pause, …

Health technology

AI deskilling in medicine: lessons from Air France 447

Colin G. Knight, MD

October 8, 2026Oct 8, 2026

In 2021, at four endoscopy centers in Poland, endoscopists got a new tool to aid in colonoscopies. A computer equipped with an artificial intelligence watched the video alongside them and highlighted anything that looked like a polyp. The centers were part of a trial, so, as part of the study, the doctors had access to the tool on some days and not on others. This variability allowed researchers a chance …

Physician voices

Automation bias in medicine already has doctors deferring

Colin G. Knight, MD

August 8, 2026Aug 8, 2026

At the hospital where I operate, most of the pediatric subspecialists never walk through the door. Endocrinology, hematology, infectious disease: The consult happens by phone. They read the chart, they ask questions, they leave a plan. I would like to tell you the plan is usually right. I have no way to know that. The hospitalist examined the child. The specialist did not, and there is no second version of …

Physician voices

The 3 flight-line lessons operating room safety missed

Colin G. Knight, MD

July 5, 2026Jul 5, 2026

Surgery borrowed the checklist from aviation and stopped there. Three more lessons from the flight line, on distraction, automation, and fixation, are still waiting to be picked up. On September 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 descended toward Charlotte…

Surgery borrowed the checklist from aviation and stopped there. Three more lessons from the flight line, on distraction, automation, and fixation, are still waiting to be picked up.

On September 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 descended toward Charlotte in light fog. The cockpit voice recorder captured the crew talking about politics and used cars while the DC-9 sank below its assigned altitude. The airplane hit terrain short of the …

Physician voices

What aviation safety can teach surgery about culture

Colin G. Knight, MD

May 30, 2026May 30, 2026

I spent four years as an Air Force flight surgeon before I finished surgery residency, and the safety culture I learned on the flight line still shapes how I run an operating room. Aviation learned long ago that the smartest person in the room is sometimes the most dangerous one. Surgery is learning the same lesson, but we are not there yet.

My path to becoming a surgeon was unusual. I …