Recent content by neusu

Thank you! I do hope some insight to the field I love gave some perspective. For the MD/PhD I have seen several takes. First, those that enter as MD/PhD, I have seen get burnt out more quickly and want a "real life," because they spent the extra time in the lab. Moreover, the opportunity cost...

It only helps, but in itself is not much.

Subjective feedback is typically not helpful. Preceptors often do not make much effort to interact directly with their students. Unfortunate the way the current system is undertaken, but it is what it is.

Glad you found it informative! I should go back and re-read it all to get an idea of how things were for me way back when! I hope you found what you love.

You're welcome!

I am no longer in academic neurosurgery, but I do know that, historically, neurosurgery was 5 or 6 years after a general surgery intern year. This was integrated in to a 7-year model, such that there weren't programs that were 6 years total or 7 years total; all were now 7 years in duration...

There are arguments that can be made either way. We have the ABNS and the Senior Society whose object is to determine training metrics and certification. I can not pretend to understand the nuance that goes in to these decisions, but they seem to know what they are doing.

I suspect spine will break off in to its own program straight out of med school (similar to plastics or cards). Hyper-specialization is rampant in medicine. IMHO it is driven by admin/insurance etc to encourage gate-keeping and creating silos within medicine to have us fight one another...

There will always be need for surgeons, at least until some Star Trek IV type device is created. Even with robots, the ports need to get in etc. The future holds a lot of neat advancements for medicine. It is an exciting time.

During residency would check on my days off or downtime on call. It is a lot of work! Now, as an attending, life is better, though I am further and further away from relating to what its like to be a pre-med, med student, resident, or fellow.

Cushing reflex is there for a reason! Same idea, but giving hypertonics can actually expand the hematoma. Cervical TP fractures are a different story. Agreed. Also history of NOACs etc

I presume you mean hand surgery as in surgery by hand. Surgical aids such as navigation and robotics will become more prevalent. Moreover, as these become standard of care, we risk our trainees losing the ability to do it the "old fashioned way." When it works, these technologies can be...

In private practice, most ER docs seem to do a good job setting the expectation that back pain is not an emergency (after emergent needs are ruled out). I am sure it is reimbursement related, or utilization review etc, but x-ray/CT is far less useful than MRI to evaluate radicular symptoms...

You are most welcome. It has been quite the adventure!

We'll have to have a birthday party for it in October lol The last 10-years have been rather transformative for neurosurgery. Two areas stick out in my mind as being dramatically different: instrumented spine and stroke. For spine, when I was in med school and early on in training, the...