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Tag: practice environment

Retrospective Thoughts on Adapting to New Technologies

By John G. Kloss, MD Thank you for the invitation to comment on the forces that may induce us to accept new technologies. Here is perhaps another perspective as to what that might mean from a business perspective. Upon completion of a Hand Fellowship in Louisville, my wife and I moved to Boise, Idaho to […]

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Growing Pains: The Art of Wearing Multiple Hats

By Melissa Arief, MD Last week my practice manager handed me a 52-page financial report for our small private practice. Did I know that per month our phone bill is $5000?         If I could change one thing about my education, I would have studied economics. Biochemistry seemed appropriate at the time, but now as a […]

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The Biggest Surprise of My Career

By Leon S. Benson, MD It is a reasonable time to reflect back upon my past 30 years as a hand surgeon, given that I just turned 60 years old (at the height of the pandemic in Chicago!) – and that one of my daughters just started her residency in psychiatry and the other one […]

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My Biggest Surprise

By Jennifer Tucker, MD, MS “Hand surgery isn’t the hard part, it’s getting everyone to work together.” This is what Dr. Kay Kirkpatrick (now Senator Kirkpatrick) told me a few months into beginning my practice in one of the largest Orthopedic groups in the country. I had just completed my fellowship and was reviewing and […]

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The Value of a Physician Assistant in a Hand and Upper Extremity Practice

By Elizabeth Elander, PA-C Physician Assistants (PAs) are medical professionals typically trained at a graduate level, who are able to diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe mediations, and perform procedures. All PAs are required to work with a collaborating physician, though the exact requirements of that collaborative agreement vary by state. PAs work […]

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Ready to Return to the “Old Normal”

By Warren C. Hammert, MD Today is Sunday, April 12.  It is remarkable how life has changed over the last month.  At the University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY, we are now 4 weeks into the “shutdown.” We are only performing urgent and emergent surgery and seeing “needed” patients in the office. Trauma has been slower […]

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Physician Leadership is Essential

By Stephen Kennedy, MD, FRCSC Today is 4/15/2020. In Washington State, we are 10 days following our peak resource use on 4/5/2020, and we are cautiously optimistic that our hand surgeons will not be called to the ER or the ICU, and that we may be able to resume some elective surgery in our semi-urgent […]

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April 26: Envy, Relief, Thankfulness

By Shalimar Abdullah, MBBS Today is 26th April 2020. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. University Hospital (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).  It has been 6 weeks since we first became worried about the COVID pandemic. I was scheduled to attend the Asia Pacific Hand meeting (APFSSH) in Melbourne, Australia on March 10th. But 6 days before my flight my […]

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April 27: The New Normal

By Amy Woznick, MD, FACS Today is Monday April 27, 2020. It has been over 6 weeks since the Governor of Michigan issued all schools to close, and within a week everything else was shut down. Our level one trauma center canceled all non-emergent surgeries. Office appointments were cleared. I assumed this was a temporary […]

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Hand Surgeons Must Help

By James E. Clune, MD When we think of conservation in the operating room, time is our commodity. We try to limit turnover between cases, we make sure consents and equipment lists are ready at the time of the booking. During the procedure we limit the amount of excess motion in our hands and only […]

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