Bryce Taylor, left, and anaesthesiologist Raynauld Ko review the checklist. © Michael Stuparyk/Toronto Star. 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Each year an estimated 234 million operations are performed throughout the world. Associated surgical complications account for a substantial burden of disease. The Toronto General Hospital (UHN) Department of Surgery participated in a prospective study of the impact of a Safe Surgery checklist, sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Checklist reduces complications.
General surgeons, broadly educated and capable of performing a wide spectrum of surgical procedures, have long been the backbone of hospitals and the surgical community. Hospitals are outsourcing their expertise. |
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Members of my specialty are receiving increased attention to their financial relationships with manufacturers of expensive intracardiac devices. Guidelines are necessary but insufficient. |
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Laparoscopic general surgeon Allan Okrainec's research focus is on the use of simulation for surgical education in the developing world. |
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Robert Nam and Arun Seth have discovered a gene fusion that occurs specifically in aggressive prostate cancers and is expressed in circulating tumour cells.
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A stirring debate on the role of industry funding in surgery was the highlight of the winter quarter dinner meeting of the St. Michael's Hospital surgery department. |
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Quality improvement is elusive in individual surgical practice because variations are hard to recognize. Regional practice collaboratives are working. |
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