How do we educate residents with todays restrictions .... (part III)

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

~Albert Einstein

So the next question is how do we, educators, teach our audience, the learners, our craft with in the restrictions of different governing bodies, while appropriately meeting the specific needs of the current generation?

As we look at the need of the current generation, we can see that there is an emphasis on the individual yet they want to be mentored. They are in touch with the newest technology and may require different ways of communicating. You may be required to give them instant feedback. Heck, we have cell phone and the text messaging. I want to know now. Why didn't you pick you your phone? I think we, educators, must keep in mind that everyone’s time is important. The learners do not need to learn all of the information in one sitting. People learn and think best when well rested and fed. This progression to a kinder gentler medical training is a change in philosophy. It will make less bitter people.

The learners, on the other hand, must understand that they will be required to be active participants in their own education. Because less will be learned directly from the educator, the learner must be facile with the other learning media. Learners must seek out knowledge. There is not enough time to do passive learning; the learner must seek out the opportunities to gain clinical skill. This is something in the past that was provided by shear volume; now, it must be sought out and learn through alternative means. Unlike many things that can be learned by reading, those who are in clinical specialties must learn from patients. Patients and their diseases do not always follow the rules. The more patients you see, the better understanding of the possible variations in presentation. This can not be learned by computer simulation or by reading in a text book. There is no algorithm will incorporate every clinical scenario. So, the patients must be seen and evaluated. With all of the new technology, one of the key skill set of the physician is slowly being lost, the physical examination.

There are some significant changes coming in the future that will effect resident education. Many current residents and medical students harp on the 80 work week and the low pay. There are the arguments that say that the hospitals and universities get 100+ thousand dollars for each resident and the resident should get more money or have to work less hours. I say, be careful what you wish for. Let's go into some basic changes that will effect resident education directly and indirectly.

NEED TO INCREASE PHYSICIAN NUMBER

Although there are some that believe that,

There has been a systematic attempt to limit the number of spots in medical schools. With a limited supply of training institutions, there was insufficient supply to meet demand.

There have been some significant changes over the past few years to actually increase the number of physicians. Here is a little history.

In 1992, the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) issued a series of reports expressing concern with potential surpluses of physicians and recommending an increase in the percent of physicians trained and practicing as generalists. These concerns led the Council to develop a recommendation that 110 percent of the number of U.S. medical graduates in 1993 should enter residency training each year (or about 19,750 physicians) and that half of these physicians should be generalists. This recommendation became known as the “110/50-50” goal for the physician workforce in the U.S.

Recently put out in the COGME's 16th report, they assessed the future supply, demand, and need for physicians in the United States (U.S.) through 2020 for both generalist and non-generalist physicians will exceed what we are currently producing.

Summarizing some of their findings:

1. Under current production and practice patterns, the supply of practicing physicians in the U.S. is expected to rise from 781,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) physicians3 in 2000 to 971,800 in 2020, a 24 percent incease.

2. At the same time, for a number of reasons and under a number of scenarios and models, the demand for physicians is likely to grow even more rapidly over this period than the supply.

3. The need for services, reflecting primarily the use of services under universal insurance and increased utilization review processes, is also expected to increase over the period.

4. The models and alternative scenarios used to make the predictions included a number of factors that could have a major impact on supply, demand, and need and, consequently, on a potential gap in the physician supply. Many of these factors are likely to add to the shortage of physicians.
> Changing lifestyles for the newest generation of physicians, with the possibility that new physicians will work fewer hours than their predecessors;
>Continuation of the rate of increase in the use of physician services by those over 45, which has been increasing for the past 20 years, and increased use of services by the baby-boom generation compared to prior generations
> Expected increases in the Nation’s wealth that would contribute to continued increases in the use of medical services.

Other factors could also lead to larger shortages and are not included in the baseline projections or alternative scenarios. These include the following:

> A potential increase in non-patient care activities by physicians, including research and administrative activities;
> A potential change in practice patterns for physicians over 50, including a reduction in hours worked before retirement and earlier retirement patterns;
> Possible increases in departures from practice due to liability concerns of physicians;
> Decreases in hours worked by physicians in training;
> Possible decreases in immigration of graduates of foreign medical schools;
> Possible increases in the number of physicians limiting the number of patients on their panel (sometimes referred to as “boutique medicine”);
> Advances in genetic testing that could lead to increases in the use of services as individuals learn they are at risk for certain illnesses or conditions; and
> Additional medical advances likely to keep individuals with chronic illnesses alive longer without curing their illnesses.

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL RESPONSE

In response to the findings of COGME, medical schools have started the process of increasing the class sizes to help with predicted future needs. This is in contrast to the past where there was a decrease in both medical school classes, as well as a push towards the primary care specialties. With the current findings, there will be a need across the board. There is less of a push for those primary specialties. In June of 2006, AAMC came out with a Statement on the Physician Workforce. They recommended:

1. Enrollment in LCME-accredited medical schools should be increased by 30% from the 2002 level over the next decade. This expansion should be accomplished by increased enrollment in existing schools as well as by establishing new medical schools.

2. The aggregate number of graduate medical education (GME) positions should be expanded to accommodate the additional graduates from accredited medical schools.

3. The AAMC should assist medical schools with expanding enrollment in a cost effective manner; assuring appropriate medical education for traditional and non-traditional students; and increasing the number and preparedness of applicants.

4. The AAMC should continue to advocate for and promote efforts to increase enrollment and graduation of racial and ethnic minorities from medical school; and promote the education and training of leaders in medical education and health care from racial and ethnic minorities.

5. The AAMC should examine options for development of: (1) a formal, voluntary process for assessing medical schools outside the U.S.; and (2) a mechanism for overseeing the clinical training experiences in the U.S. of medical students enrolled in foreign medical education programs.

6. The AAMC should undertake a study of the geographic distribution of physicians and develop recommendations to address mal-distribution in the U.S.

7. National Health Service Corps (NHSC) awards should be increased by at least 1,500 per year to help meet the need for physicians caring for under-served populations and to help address rising mdical student indebtedness.

8. Studies of the relationship between physician preparation (i.e., medical education and residency training) and the quality and outcomes of care should be conducted and supported by public and private funding.

RESIDENCY FUNDING

Residents are mostly funded by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and this is for taking care of Medicare patients. That funding is split into 2 parts: DGME and IME. The DGME (Direct Graduate Medical Education payment) is the direct cost of the resident (salary, benefits, malpractice, etc). The IME (Indirect Medical Education) is the indirect cost of medical education (teaching, supplies, cost of personnel for each residency and GME, and the increased cost of training institutions because of trainees). The dollar amounts vary based on an algorithm, but the gist is that the DGME is about ~$70-90,000 and the IME is ~$30,000. In the near future, like next year, the IME is being decrease by about 1/2. Another change that will affect residencies is that if a resident goes to a course for education, the government will not pay for those days, unless they were vacation days. If a resident is in an outpatient setting, unless approved by CMS, the hospital or facility will have to cover the residents salary for that given time. Every hour of a resident’s day has to be accounted for and reported to the government. If there is a question, that time will have to be covered by the institution. Many would have you believe that the hospital make a mint of of the residents. They get money from the government and then they are able to bill for facility fees and attendings bill for their work. There are actually some articles that are coming out to dispute this.

Along with the CMS guidelines the numbers of medical graduates will be increasing but the residency "cap" has not. Therefore the number of residencies paid for by CMS will not change. There have been some policies to change this, but they are not currently in place. Hospitals have responded to the lack of governmental GME funding by funding residency positions themselves.

Why do I say be careful what you wish for? I can see in the future requiring tuition for residency. When the government pulls most or all of the funding, this may be happening.

TIME

Time is going to be an issue. With many of the newer generation wanting a "life", they are going to spent less time learning in the hospital. We have run into this problem with trying to fit in a curriculum that is considered a necessity by the RRC. When do you find time to have didactics? In today’s world, the didactics must be taught between the hours of 630 am and 6pm, Monday through Friday, no weekends, no holidays. This makes things tough in the surgical specialties. Yes, we can hire PA's and NP's to cover floor work; and yes, the attendings can start the cases by themselves (I actually prefer this because I get to operate). The problem is that this is education time too. In the surgical specialties, noon conferences don't work. That means it must be at the beginning or the end of the day.

Hospitals are being crushed by decreases in reimbursements so they are pushing to get more done with less. More cases are done in less time. Start the cases early and on time so that they can get more done before the end of the day shift. They don't want to pay overtime. Many hospitals want to push the OR time back to 7am. Hospitals administrators know that residents slow down many attending surgeons and would rather not have them operate to decrease OR time. So how are we going to prevent monetary problems from effecting the education of our needed practitioners?

WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

In the end, this question I wanted to solve has only brought more questions. I will continue to reevaluate my on education styles. I hope to keep this generations eyes open. I want them to look not only at how they are affected, but at how their choices and actions affect those who will follow them. As an educator, my ultimate goal is to put out a good product (physician/surgeon) in the end. The means of doing that may vary but hopefully the outcomes will be the same.

"In youth we learn; in age we understand.”

~Mari Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Making beautiful music ...

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Many people view medicine as an art and I am one of these people. Although, there is a lot science to back up much of what we do, there are many thing that we do that are not based on science; they are based on experience and intuition. I refer to this as an "emotional" issue. We are all products of our environment and training. We are influenced by those around us, both our educators and colleagues, as well as, our personal experiences outside of the field of medicine. Medicine is an art and surgery is like a symphony. The operating theater is the orchestra and the surgeon is the conductor.

What does it mean to be the conductor? The purpose of the conductor is to communicate real-time information to performers. The conductor is also responsible for the preparation and rehearsal of the orchestra, and for making interpretative decisions - such as whether a certain passage should be slow, fast, soft, loud, smooth, aggressive, and so on. There are no absolute rules on how to conduct correctly, and a wide variety of different conducting styles exist. As the conductor you must have an understanding of the basic elements of musical expression and the ability to communicate them effectively to an ensemble. A conductor communicates these decisions both verbally (in rehearsal) and during the performance using different movements, gestures, and facial expressions. It is the conductors role to communicate his/her interpretation of the music to the ensemble.

Many conductors have at least a basic understanding of all of the instruments and and that instruments role in the music being presented. The modern symphony orchestra consists of around 20 different musical instruments. There are four main groups: Strings (violin, viola, cello, bass, and harp), Woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon) Brass (trumpet, horn, trombone, and tuba), and Percussion (including the piano). The conductor must have an understanding of each of these instruments and their importance to the music that is being interpreted. Their understanding of these instruments and their role in the musical piece are affected by their experience and previous instructors or conductors. This is why the same music will sound different when performed by different orchestras and conductors. Each conductor has developed his/her own style or flare; their understanding of the music is different because of their experiences. The outcomes are ultimately the same, but the approach may be different.

The operating theater is very similar to the orchestra. You have strings (residents/PA's), woodwinds (scrub nurse), brass (circulating nurse), and percussion (the instrumentation rep). It is the attending surgeons responsibility to assure that his interpretation of the procedure as s/he sees it is performed to his/her standards. The conductor (attending surgeon), who has been influenced by his her mentors, must communicate with his 1st violin (primary resident or PA) what he expects for a particular musical piece (procedure). S/he must speak with the percussion to assure that the proper instruments are present so that the tempo and flow of the procedure is consistent and unimpeded. The conductor must keep those woodwinds and brass from getting too loud and overpowering the strings. On occasion, the woodwinds many have their own solo (first assist) when the strings are unavailable. The more time the group have together, the better they all understand the particular nuances of the conductor and can anticipate his/her expectations for a particular piece.

In surgical residencies, the attending staff are training many future conductors. In the first few years, the residents are gaining knowledge of the basics of their craft. An understanding of the different musical instruments and how they can effect the musical interpretation. The residents learn from many master conductors. The resident's style is a combination of the many different influences of his/her residency training. The future conductor will read the techniques in a text book and have a basic understanding of how music can be played. They also see how the masters have conducted the particular musical pieces and will form their own style based on their interpretation. That is what makes this fascinating. The patient's presentation, your understanding of the basic science and your experience will determine how you will approach a patient and which techniques you may use to solve the problem.

It is an interesting thing to watch form as interns transform into chief residents and young attendings. In watching a chief resident conduct the operating theater, you can see the influences of the different conductors that they have trained under. Their use of different instruments in a procedure shows a preference to certain surgical techniques. At the end of the year, the chief residents begin to spread their wings and start to show their own interpretation of the different musical pieces. It is almost July and in the coming months there will be a number of new conductors out into the world. In the surgical residencies, we a getting a whole new group of bright eyed new students and losing a number of talented young conductors. My hope is that we have given them the necessary skills to produce beautiful music.

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”

~Thomas Merton

The less you do .... the less you do

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise”

~Oscar Wilde

I have a particular interest in education, so my view may be different than others. I also believe in changing things by working within the system rather than against it. That is where most of my opinions are centered.

We had a faculty meeting the other week and we discussed a number of things in regards to expanding the practice. We discussed increasing faculty size to fill wholes, both for the department and residency. We discussed the increased opportunities at different hospitals. We discussed new guidelines from the hospital, the university, and the ACGME. In the end, we talked more about the residency and solutions to get around the restrictions placed by the ACGME, university, and hospital. This has become a problem for us as well as other residency programs both surgical and non-surgical. Many may think this is another discussion of how the 80 work week hurts residency yada yada yada, but it is not. We are in changing times and we all have to give a little. The problem is that we only see things from our own point of view and therefore, always feel that we are being given the "shaft" and the other person is getting more. People love to complain. No matter how perfect the situations is, people will find something to complain about. Why do we have to be so selfish?

As a member of a "faculty", I look at things through the perspective of providing good patient care, improving resident and medical student education, increasing the academic knowledge base, improving department "market share," and of course, making a living and caring for my family. Many times, these goals are at opposition to each other. The most common thing that is at opposition to everything else is resident and medical student education. From my perspective, this is not appreciated by many receiving the benefits of my (faculty's) labor.

In a discussion about how to fit the educational requirements of the ACGME into the weekly schedule without decreasing operative experience, a number of resident complaints came up. Most of the complaints were typical complaints; "so and so yelled at me"; "I have too much call"; "no one loves me" (ok that was not true). The most disturbing complaints came when discussing how we have addressed previous complaints only to find out that they don't want that solution either. OK, this was like dealing with my wife when she was 9 months pregnant. "Move the dresser here. No, to far. No, not high enough. You don't love me 'cause I am fat." etc.

I read through a number of blogs and forums to get more of an understanding of the thought process of both the resident and medical student. It astounds me how often I read about how there is so much needless paperwork, call, and busy work, the number of times that people complaint about not getting to operate and in the same breath stating that they don't want to stay later to do the operation. I am trying to get a handle on most of this via my own perspective. The questions I ask myself are: "How can I inspire someone to want to do something because it is in the best interest of the patient even if it may have a perceived educational benefit?" "How do we get newly graduated physicians to believe that those who are here to educate them are not here because residents and medical students allow them to do less work?”

I guess this is one of those random rants from frustration. I do realize that my particular view is not the norm for many throughout the academic community, but it is more common than people are lead to believe on forums or in conversations between residents. Something that is lost during residency is the perspective of the "whole". Residents can only see as far as the next day or week and how it will affect them. Their world revolves around them. They can't see passed that, because they will be gone. They may be graduating or to another service. They are always viewing things through the eyes of a "short-timer". They care about how it will ultimately affect them. Patient care, procedures performed, relationships between services, and relationships with the hospital, are not as much of a concern because for a majority of the residents will not return. Faculty sees things using long term vision. When we see patients and their family we are looking at a relationship that may last for years. Procedures that go badly may ultimately be your albatross. Bad relationships between services make caring for patient more difficult and ultimately become a political problem. With reimbursements decreasing, most practices are becoming more dependent on the hospital for support and fund; this is a relationship that has to be maintained. A department or service is thinking about the “whole” and how each individual “part” will fit. Not everyone will win every time. It becomes a give and take, so that the "whole" will be maintained.

I guess in the end we all are selfish. I wish there was someway we could just put aside the “us verses them mentality” and just work together. We (faculty) are not against you (residents). We are on the same team. I think we are fighting for the same purpose. "Can't we all just get along?"

“Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.”

~William James

When you have experience you need less exposure...

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

~Albert Einstein

One day when I was an intern, I had one of the general surgery attendings say to me, "when you have experience you need less exposure." I had no idea what he was talking about, but I did smile and nodded as your suppose to do. As I matured as a physician/surgeon, the meaning of this statement became more evident and I was astounded at the immense wisdom in such a simple statement. It is something that our medical counterparts will never truly understand.

Today, we had a wonderful lecture from one if the greats in orthopaedics, specifically total knee arthroplasty, Dr. Booth. Why was the lecture so good? Because even though I do not do TKA's, it helped me with my understanding of changes in philosophies and implants that have occurred over the last few decades and what the future holds. What was of particular interest to me was his references to medicine as the art of medicine and the performance of surgery.

He made several references to artist/sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo was extremely technically gifted and through his work you can see his maturation and his development of his own style. The Pietà which was one of Michelangelo's fist major works. It took him 2 years to complete. During this time, he studied anatomy extensively verifying that everything was perfect. He did all of the work from beginning to end, including the final polishing. It has been noted to be highly finished and showed that he had mastered anatomy and the disposition of drapery and had solved the problem of the representation of a full-grown man stretched out nearly horizontally on the lap of a woman. This is regarded as one of his most famous works. When you look at one of his later sculptures, such as the Moses, in it's creation, he saw what he wanted to carve in the single block of marble and carved it. He did not need to study the anatomy or revisit the models or paintings. It was done all from memory, from what he envisioned in his mind's eye. He could see what needed to be done without seeing. With his experience, he needed less external input to get a wonderful result. The comparisons of surgery to art is amazing including the differences in styles or the phenomenon of how the second side of a bilateral procedure is quicker; like Michelangelo when he painted the Sistine Chapel, the second half was done much quicker.

I thought this correlation with surgical techniques was wonderful. It illuminates the fact that in a technical craft you must have an understanding of the concepts and be able to perform the techniques. The technical skill comes with time and aptitude. Dr. Booth pointed out that when he had residents, only about 1 in 3 could immediately visualize things in three dimensions. It is not something that can not be taught. Some people have it and some don't. I do believe it can be eventually learned. The ability of seeing something without seeing takes the experience of seeing. So, what is happening with todays surgical fields? We are going to more minimally invasive techniques which do not give our learners the experience of seeing the anatomy as in the past.

I can look at my own practice. I have seen the change of styles and the increase in residents dependence on fluoroscopy. I watch during surgery the need for a learner to gather more input. "What is this structure?" Immediately the finger goes into the wound to touch it, gathering more information from another sensory source. "Why do you need to put you finger in the wound?" This is really a rhetorical question. I know the answer. They don't yet have the vision to see what I see. I realize now that the time to develop this vision is increasing. Why, you may ask? Most of what we do now is done minimally invasively. We do scopes and percutaneous procedures. We use the new technology to make smaller incisions for a more aesthetic result. So, what skill or vision that many in the past developed doing open procedures is lost. The ability to visualize what is under the skin without seeing is being replaced by technology.

Dr. Booth reference several articles that where proponents computer aided total joint arthroplasty. He review their results and made the point that the amount of error in the non computer aided total joints may have been a result of inexperience with doing non-computer aided surgery or increasing dependence on the computer and decrease experience on relying on anatomical landmarks. He pointed out that no matter how good the computer gets, it can not duplicate or correct for some of the things that an individual surgeon develops over time. He noted that every time he has watched a demonstration of the computer aided techniques, the surgeon ends up making multiple cuts in the femur or tibia to appease the computer. That is the exact opposite of the old mantra, "measure twice, cut once." He pointed out that technology is improving orthopaedic surgery and will continue to help improve it, but the human factor must always be present and that it is hard to put a value on experience.

As generations come and technology evolves, things will change; it is the nature of living. Medicine is an art and the scalpel is the surgeons brush. We all approach things base on our experience and the techniques of our masters. We evolve over the years of practice developing out own flare and styles. Some of us paint with oils and others with water colors; we carve wood or chisel marble. We become comfortable with what we know. How will technology change our art? I am not sure, but it will be fun to watch the future unfold. Now we don't have the exposure, when will we develop the experience?

“In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's like peanut butter, cheese, and bacon ...

“Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!”

~Friedrich Nietzche

You know there are some things we do and say that make everything better. Like for example, peanut butter, cheese, and bacon. Add any of the scrumptious items to a dish and it is ten times better. This also goes for fake cheesy powder or spread. I think it may be even better if you have to lick it off of your fingers. (mmm mmmm good)

There are a few words that have this effect as well. They can make something great even better, like a pan seared scallop wrapped in bacon. In slang or in speaking with the unsophisticated folks like myself, they can be used like gerunds and participles. One such word is fuckin'. Notice this is not the curse word, f!c(ing. This is like bi+(h verses Biatch. A word like f#%k!n' can make something that is already great so much better.

So, in the future I predict that there will be a trend to introduce some of these new words into the Webster's Dictionary. I can see thinks like fan-f#%k!n'-tastic (FFT) or the very orthopaedic ana-f#%k!n'-tomic (AFT) used as freely as many other word are used today. People will answer questions like "how are you" with answers like f#%k!n'-great or or ff#%k!n'-awesome. It may even be added to high school education once everything is done on-line and no one has to go to school anymore.

This is the future of language as I see it and our time will come. This is the Nuevo English language. But for now, we will have to keep these words to ourselves and use acronyms like a teenage text message.

“The world's a rollercoaster and I am not strapped in. Maybe I should hold with care, but my hands are busy in the air.”

~Brandon Boyd

He is dead to me ....

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
~Carl Gustav Jung

It is rare that orthopaedic surgeons know much about medications beyond the 2 antibiotics (Ancef and the other on when they are allergic). We occasionally know several NSAIDS and other post-op pain medication. If a patient is on more than Prevacid, we are likely to get a medicine consult because we have no idea what that new cardiac medication does. So, we rarely are visited by the well dressed pharmacy representative. (Well, ever since the who Vioxx debacle.) Orthopaedic surgeons are a high user of equipment, particularly implants. Therefore, we are always being visited by implant representatives, Zimmer, Styker, Medtronic, Biomet, Depuy. They bring their bagels and their new fancy devices just approved by the FDA through X amount of clinical trials. They keep scheduling you meetings to talk to you about new technology; take you to dinner to wine and dine you with a "special" lecturer. They smile and talk to you like a stripper wanting a 10 dollar tip. So, how should choose your implant company? My opinion is you choose the one with the best representation. Let me explain.

I do spine cases. Spine implants cost a lot of money and the rep gets a percentage of the money from each case. Let me give you an idea of dollars. A pedicle screw costs about ~$400-1000 per screw; a rod cost ~$500; and a cross-link~$1000 . I do scoliosis cases. On average, I will use 15 screws, 2 rods, and 2 cross-links (~$15,000-20,000/case). The rep gets 5-20% of that amount depending on where they are in the food chain (~$750-4,000/case). Because of the amount of money and the number of companies, they are always trying to get you to use their implant.

Now, I can tell you that most of the companies have the same "stuff." The fancy doodad and the whoosie whatsit will be on everyones implant set. The companies have become so big that even patents don't mean much and if they really want something from a small company, they will just buy the company. What separates one company from another, besides having a specific new device, is the representation. The representative must be knowledgeable, courteous, prepared, eager, unbiased, and the all important, not annoying. The rep has to be cautious as not to hurt anyones eqo as well as providing information that is helpful. It is a fine line. Let me tell you what puts a rep on "probation" in my OR. Saying you are prepared and you are not.

Today, I was doing a tibial osteotomy. I decided to use a company that I had used previously but had not for sometime. I was approached by the new reps who where eager an knowledgeable. They even brought their "specialist" in for the case. I check the set the day before, they assured me they had everything.

The day began, same as usual. Talked to patient. Walk the patient to the room. Checked with the rep and my staff to make sure we had all of the equipment. I began the case. Life was good. Pins were in place.

"OK Don, where is the whoosie whatsit?"

"Dr. P it's right over here." Pointing with his laser pointer.

Eve hands me the whoosie whatsit. I place it on the external fixator. I start to use it.

"Hey, Don. Is it says template on it? Is this the right one?"

"Sure is. That's the one you use."

"OK," I say. I put the next pin in place. Wouldn't you know that whoosie whatsit held that pin like a BB in a box car.

"Uh, Don. This doesn't fit. Do you have something else? Another whoosie whatsit? Maybe in you car or at the office?"

"UUhhh no, we don't have any thing else," he says.

Silence.To my scrub tech,"Get me the Ilizarov trays."

I didn't speak to him the rest of the case. My scrub tech, Eve, and I put together a new fixator. And the case turned out beautifully.

The leg looks FFT (Fan-Fu&@*ng-tastic).

For now, he is dead to me.

For all of you going into practice, don't be fooled by the fancy equipment, the nice dinner, or the pretty representative with the low cut dress. When you are choosing a total joint, spine, or fracture implant company, choose them based on the companies equipment and their representative. If you have a good rep, you can make almost any system work; with a bad rep, you may not have the equipment you need even if the company makes it.

Oh and by the way, always have a back up plan.

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers"
~Voltaire

What you can do if a telemarketer calls you ....

Hello all,

This has nothing to do with medicine, residency, or teaching. It is just plain ole funny. Check it out.