Surgeons are among the few people left who manage to switch off from all the pings, notifications and alerts, and truly focus an a single, focussed task for a prolonged period. In an age of attention deficit, our operating lists are therapy.

If you want sudden, non obvious leverage in your work or your career you need to import some insights from a different field. Are you an endocrinologist? Read a basic primer on software debugging. Are you a surgeon? Read some architecture.

Similar experience in many specialties

Methanol poisoning

Our training is too long. The system is demands a heavy service commitment.

Doctors in large centers don't realize what a life-changer fast operating room turnover times are. For those that don't know, the turnover time in OR's varies widely between hospitals. That's the time it takes to clean the room and set up for the next case. In efficient hospitals, especially those that are physician owned, it can be as quick as 20 minutes. In large academic hospitals, it can push 4 or even 5 hours. Think of the difference that makes for quality of life, patient care, and revenue. A doctor who has a large waitlist of patients might be at the hospital until 8pm and still only get two surgeries done because the turnover time is so long. That same doctor could get 3 or 4 surgeries done in a more efficient hospital, getting home in time to have dinner with his family. A physician owned hospital would never tolerate a 4 hour turnover time. That's money being lit on fire. Yet hospitals tolerate this all the time because they don't face competition. There's no incentive to run efficient. So the patients have to wait longer for their surgery, the doctors get frustrated, and everybody loses.

What if I told you there’s a hospital department where the most senior consultants voluntarily do the weekend on-call rota? Not because they have to. Because their colleagues have young children.

This is not said often enough or loudly enough. Bad for surgical training but also bad for producing good quality research.

Eye opening. We know this what happens…

Greatest thing about practicing. Followup. a great… and humbling teacher. 13-15 yrs ago.

Nurse practitioners are nurses. Doctors are doctors. The blurring of roles has real consequences

Robotic Lysis of Adhesions | #MedicalCase #HydropicGallbladder #SurgeryLife #MedStudent #Radiology #MedTwitter #surgery @IBCOxford @Bariatric_doc #roboticsurgery #Some4surgery @IntuitiveSurg @CirugiaUdC @flochman @PipeCabreraV @CiruAndes2 @juliomayol @pferrada1 @OscarGuevaraHPB @DrJonnys @SAGES_Updates @AmCollSurgeons @SWexner @ascolcirugia @MISIRG1 @APDSurgery @DptoCirugiaPUJ @ForegutSociety @SESC_AmSurg Precision in Complex Surgery youtu.be/206csgpwrKM?si=icjn… via @YouTube

- @laraghavan

In 1980, DeBakey operated on the Shah of Iran. He declares success. Soon, the patient is dead. Reoperation is psychologically brutal: how bias delay truth & what might save us from the same trap. leezhaomd.org/post/the-secon… #MedTwitter #Surgery #MedEd

Wonderful.