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By Julia A. V. Nuelle, MD I watched with anticipation as Dr. Terry Light gingerly unwrapped the dressing of the 18-month-old patient that sat on his mother’s lap. This hand surgery clinic was one of the first clinics I rotated through during my surgical rotation as a third-year medical student. At that point, I was […]
By Sandra Pfanner, MD My interest in surgery of the hand and consequent decision to pursue this difficult career began during my training at the School of Orthopedics and Traumatology at the University of Florence. During my post-graduate specialization, I had the opportunity to visit the department of Hand Surgery and Reconstructive Microsurgery at our local […]
By Ronit Wollstein, MD The development of an individual work style is an ongoing process over time that likely changes throughout our professional life, and is unique to every surgeon. This may therefore not suit all but since this is a personal perspective, I will give my opinion. The point I would like to make […]
By David Nelson, MD Chair, Patient Safety Subcommittee This essay is the first in a series of monthly Patient Safety essays by the Patient Safety Subcommittee of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee. A comparison of safety in aviation and medicine is frightening: aviation disasters are investigated, written up, and every pilot has access to the […]
Scenario Note: This happened to the Chair of the Patient Safety Subcommittee, and therefore this write-up will be in the first person. The patient is a 21 year old boy who is quite well known to me, the surgeon. I was present at his baptism, my wife is the patient’s godmother, and his grandmother is […]
By Lawrence T. Donovan, DO I can recall vividly a conversation that I had with my dad in 1978 after my first year of medical school when he was passing on some very sage advice. My dad was a pathologist who practiced at three small, rural hospitals in Iowa and Minnesota, traveling 45,000 miles per year […]
By Robert L. Horner, MD Doors have been opened because I choose to be a Hand Surgeon. There had been a limit for membership to 100 in the American Society for Surgery of the Hand –but, just in time for me, that arbitrary number was upped to 125, and I was elected to membership in […]
By Richard D. Meyer, MD Of all the “procedures” done by hand surgeons, release of entrapped nerves are among the most common. There were countless chapters, articles, and research produced decades before there was reliable evidence or tests to substantiate these diagnoses. Even after nerve conduction testing became more routine, it was years before carpal […]
By Pedro Negrao Ramos, MD My name is Pedro Ramos and I’m from Porto, Portugal. In Portugal, you don’t have an organized hand fellowship, so I did my hand training during orthopedic residency with two very experienced hand surgeons in a level one trauma center in Porto. They were “responsible” for my passion with hand […]