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some threads now nearly a decade old were posted on this topic, and so in light of personal anxieties i am beginning to confront i decided to "rebirth" it:
there is an increasingly palpable pulse of enthusiasm for innovation in surgical technology that, for better or for worse, is subtly paving a road toward a time in which a surgeon is rendered obsolete. indeed, there is the a of two M's --- machines and mid-levels --- that may herald a very different future from that which someone like me ever imagined when we interview(ed) for training in surgery.
i myself entered this field out of a love of working with my hands, of standing (not sitting!) above an anesthetized patient and making use of my hands and hand-held tools directly. for me, there has never been a higher challenge than the use of clinical skills toward physical diagnosis, the layers of peri- and intra-operative disease management, or the sense of duty, service, and sacrifice that become a surgeon. and now, as robotics calls into question why hands might ever need to be laid on patients and time-honored sutures are replaced with silicon valley-prescribed tinker toys, i worry i may not likely meet those once-straightforward goals.
a perusal of media available on the internet brings up many articles that call into question the relevance of physicians, particularly surgeons, in the not-too-distant future.
i don't deign to address the rise of the mid-levels here for now; suffice it to say that as more and more of physicians' tasks are cannibalized by lesser-trained and lower-cost individuals, all physicians -- including surgeons, who will be dually affected by the yoke of automation -- will be confronting an identity crisis.
i like to think of my shelf life as the next 3-4 decades, more if i am exceptionally lucky. i posted this thread in the hopes that my curious cynicism would be tempered by more realistic, perhaps better-informed perspectives on the subject.
are surgical societies actively confronting the issues to which i've called attention? can trainees like me expect an increasingly scrupulous healthcare finance system to be tempered by reason and a booming voice in support of human thought and labor? will opportunities both present and future to function in so critical a capacity be threatened by the persistent, relentless emergence of technological "convenience?"
there is an increasingly palpable pulse of enthusiasm for innovation in surgical technology that, for better or for worse, is subtly paving a road toward a time in which a surgeon is rendered obsolete. indeed, there is the a of two M's --- machines and mid-levels --- that may herald a very different future from that which someone like me ever imagined when we interview(ed) for training in surgery.
i myself entered this field out of a love of working with my hands, of standing (not sitting!) above an anesthetized patient and making use of my hands and hand-held tools directly. for me, there has never been a higher challenge than the use of clinical skills toward physical diagnosis, the layers of peri- and intra-operative disease management, or the sense of duty, service, and sacrifice that become a surgeon. and now, as robotics calls into question why hands might ever need to be laid on patients and time-honored sutures are replaced with silicon valley-prescribed tinker toys, i worry i may not likely meet those once-straightforward goals.
a perusal of media available on the internet brings up many articles that call into question the relevance of physicians, particularly surgeons, in the not-too-distant future.
i don't deign to address the rise of the mid-levels here for now; suffice it to say that as more and more of physicians' tasks are cannibalized by lesser-trained and lower-cost individuals, all physicians -- including surgeons, who will be dually affected by the yoke of automation -- will be confronting an identity crisis.
i like to think of my shelf life as the next 3-4 decades, more if i am exceptionally lucky. i posted this thread in the hopes that my curious cynicism would be tempered by more realistic, perhaps better-informed perspectives on the subject.
are surgical societies actively confronting the issues to which i've called attention? can trainees like me expect an increasingly scrupulous healthcare finance system to be tempered by reason and a booming voice in support of human thought and labor? will opportunities both present and future to function in so critical a capacity be threatened by the persistent, relentless emergence of technological "convenience?"
