J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2003;125:3-11
© 2003 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery
Lewis and Clark, pioneers, and the American dream
Donald B. Doty, MD
From the Department of Surgery, LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Read at the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of The Western Thoracic Surgical Association, Big Sky, Mont, June 19-22, 2002.
Received for publication June 24, 2002. Accepted for publication July 1, 2002.
Address for reprints: Donald B. Doty, MD, 324 Tenth Ave, Salt Lake City, UT 84103 (E-mail: LDDOTY@IHC.com).
| The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
Introduction
|
|---|
It is my honor and pleasure to provide this address as the twenty-sixth president of The Western Thoracic Surgical Association. According to tradition, it is my responsibility as president to address the "weighty" matters of our specialty of thoracic surgery. There are certainly enough problems facing us that I could choose from many subjects on which to speak. It is widely known that there is declining reimbursement for our services. We may no longer be attracting the best and brightest young physicians to our specialty, and residency training positions are going unfilled. Plaintiff's attorneys are constantly looking over our shoulders, and law suit for medical malpractice is a threat every time we operate. The cost of liability insurance to protect ourselves increased an average of 44% this year, reaching preposterous rates because of inflated negligence settlements. Government agencies and their "third-party" insurers are regulating and administering our affairs and squeezing us unmercifully. The Federal Bureau of Investigation could enter our offices at any time and investigate us for fraud, with the threat of stiff fine or even incarceration. There is a crisis in research. The cardiologists are taking our business, touting claims of zero restenosis with chemically coated intracoronary stents. Our patients are older and have higher acuity of illness, obesity is rampant, they all bleed more, and operations take longer. Are these enough reasons for doom and gloom and dissatisfaction with our occupation?
Let me remind you, however, that we have the absolute best occupation. Is there anything that you would rather do than thoracic surgery? Would you rather be a commercial airline pilot, subject to endless paperwork and regulations and your income depending on union contracts for the few minutes of exciting work getting an airplane off and back onto the ground? Perhaps you would like to spend . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Copyright © 2003 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
