Surgery

  • Why Hospitals Need Structured Robotics Programs*

    Why Hospitals Need Structured Robotics Programs*

    Since 2000 the annual growth in robotic assisted surgery has increased tremendously.  Between 2009 – 2014 the number of procedures performed on the da Vinci platform from Intuitive Surgical has tripled from approximately 40,000 to 120,000[1].  It is not just the number of procedures that is growing, but also the […]

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  • How to Accelerate the Adoption of an Innovation

    How to Accelerate the Adoption of an Innovation

    The cheers from our hotel room were apparently heard down the hall.  We were on vacation when the results were first available.  My wife was checking on the boys in the room next door when she heard me jumping up and down, hooting and hollering in our room.  She ran […]

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  • Aligning Physicians and Healthcare Systems Through Choice Architecture

    Aligning Physicians and Healthcare Systems Through Choice Architecture

    The clinical practice change we implemented was supposed to be easy.  It was a simplified version of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program for patients undergoing bowel surgery. It was implemented in 18 hospitals and involved over 100 surgeons. Two key process steps were identified and tracked. They were early ambulation (patients […]

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  • Great Advice For Getting Out Of Trouble

    Great Advice For Getting Out Of Trouble

    Unstable and bleeding from multiple gun shot wounds to the abdomen, the patient appeared, to my untrained eyes, a goner.  Fortunately for this patient, I was a newbie Intern starting my General Surgery residency and nobody asked for my opinion.  My job, as second assistant, was to “hold hooks” and […]

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  • Reprocessing: When the Conventional Wisdom is Wrong

    Reprocessing: When the Conventional Wisdom is Wrong

    It was a packed house.  The room was filled with leaders from the operating rooms from across the system.  Surgeons, Anesthesiologists and Operating Room Nursing Directors were all there to hear the great debate.  The rate of adoption of reprocessed “single use devices” was accelerating across the system and we […]

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