General

April 14, 2016 / General

Leading a Surgical Team Through Crisis

Heart surgery programs have their ups and downs. An “up” is the indescribable thrill when cases are coming out of the OR with no complications, require no blood products for […]
March 5, 2016 / General

Sometimes a Second Opinion is Best to Discuss Alternatives

The latest data from the National Database of the STS demonstrates that only 0.5% of the nearly 300,000 cases performed annually the US are done less invasively using the surgical […]
February 7, 2016 / General

The Scandal of Robotic Heart Surgery Training and What to Do About It

da Vinci is a robot manufactured by Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISI) to perform less invasive surgery and is one of the most complicated surgical tools ever developed. As the robot […]
December 25, 2015 / General

Transform the Culture to Save More

Medicare has initiated a new program for paying for coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) at our hospital. In the past, hospitals and physicians have been reimbursed for various aspects of […]
November 29, 2015 / General

Modern Cardiac Surgical Hero

A report in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine indicated that there are around 100,000 preventable deaths in hospitals every year. This statistic has now become common knowledge, but few […]
November 11, 2015 / General

The Problem with HealthGrades

Compared to the paternalistic era of Marcus Welbey, the public has become increasingly savvy about their health and is now hungry to better understand the value of therapies they receive, […]
October 26, 2015 / General

Does the Robot Add Value or Is It “A Bridge Too Far”?

The surgical robot comes with a hefty price tag. It is currently on the market for around $2 million, on par with the most expensive capital items that any OR […]
October 10, 2015 / General

Judging Cardiac Surgical Quality is Necessarily Complex

Consumers easily judge quality of most products and services. We all know from our experiences that places like Disney and Wegmans are superior to the alternatives. Healthcare is no different. […]
September 21, 2015 / General

What is All the Hype About?

Robotic heart surgery programs tend to be promoted and publicized during their initial adoption phase, often times extravagantly. It is important to understand the circumstances surrounding the hype. Hospitals are […]
September 10, 2015 / General

Introduction

I am writing this blog to discuss ideas concerning my beloved job and hobby: the field of cardiothoracic surgery. I hope my passion for the field of CT surgery comes through in the desire […]