Curbing Our Enthusiasm for Surgical Innovation: Is It a Good Thing or Bad Thing?

How should we innovate? How should we introduce new procedures and devices? We live in a world that is rapidly changing. When I began my career as a surgeon, we made big incisions; we used crude surgical tools, such as needles and thread; and we recorded our results on paper. Who would’ve dreamed that we would be using mini-incisions, stapling devices, sitting at a robotic console instead of at the side of our patient, and dictating into our watches only to have it show up in every