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By Michelle Zec, MD “I thought it would be a good idea to try out a technique that I haven’t done before, Your Honor.” During fellowship, one of my staff was fond of saying that you should always consider how your surgical plan sounds with the words “your Honor” added to the end. Exploring and […]
By Frank Chen, MD Two characteristics come to mind when discussing strengths of hand surgeons. These are perseverance and humility. Both attributes are inherent and further influenced by experiences in our training. Without such qualities, success in hand surgery, let alone any field, would be curtailed. I think that any individual who pursues a career in […]
By Lee M. Reichel, MD I would like to thank the membership for this opportunity. Being a part of a local, national, and international community of hand surgeons has been a refreshing source of personal satisfaction. Regularly interacting with our monthly Zoom community hand conference, the Journal of Hand Surgery, and the ASSH LISTSERV have kept me […]
By Paul Zidel, MD “What is your greatest strength as a hand surgeon, and how could you improve?” That was the topic assigned to me. How can I answer in an interesting, insightful, and meaningful way? To paraphrase The Princess Bride movie, prepare for disappointment. At first, I was intrigued when asked to expound upon […]
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 […]
By Pedro K. Beredjiklian, MD What I have found most helpful is to determine from the beginning of the televisit whether the patient is communicating with a standalone video source (computer, laptop) or a handheld device (tablet, phone). It can be very difficult for the patient to show the location of their pain or perform any […]
By David B. Fulton, MD During this pandemic, our group tried to practice social distancing and did as many telehealth visits as feasible. We particularly encouraged the elderly and the immunocompromised patients to stay home and use the telemedicine option. Our group selected doxy.me as our telemedicine platform since it was easy for our patients […]
By Shelby R. Lies, MD Our practices have changed significantly with stay-at-home orders and physicians quickly transitioned to offering telemedicine appointments. Though several virtual applications work flawlessly, many of our less technologically-inclined patients limit us to telephone visits, which are dependent on the patients’ medical education and interpretation for history-taking. I have discovered that in […]
By Scott D. Lifchez, MD, FACS As a hand surgeon, I rely on my hands (no pun intended) to tell me what is going on with my patient. Finding exactly where they are most tender to palpation, feeling a rumble of crepitus, getting a little more laxity from one collateral ligament than the contralateral one tells […]
By Alan J. Micev, MD As a hand surgeon, I pride myself on consistency. I am compulsively on time, I almost always listen to the same music in the operating room (bossa nova, for those of you who were wondering), and at the start of a case, I tap my foot the same number of […]