When it comes to surgery, a (specialized) practice makes perfect

The mantra "practice makes perfect" may carry additional weight in the medical community. A recent study found lower mortality rates when an operation represented a larger percentage of the surgeon's overall practice.

When choosing a surgeon, patients often consider a variety of factors, including facility location, insurance coverage, and the surgeon's overall experience. But they may not consider the number of times the surgeon does the specific procedure they need.

Last July, the British Medical Journal published a study examining the association between a surgeon's degree of specialization in a specific procedure and patient mortality. The study analyzed over 695,000 surgeons performing over 25,000 surgeries in the United States between 2008 and 2013. For six of the eight procedures assessed, patients experienced lower mortality rates in the first month following surgery when the operation performed accounted for a higher percentage of the surgeon's overall practice.

The findings emphasize the importance of considering not only the surgeon's practice area, but also the surgeon's experience with the specific procedure to be performed. When searching for a surgeon, patients should ask how busy he or she is, how busy the hospital is, and what percentage of his or her surgeries involve the operation the patient needs.

Many studies have linked busier surgeons with lower mortality and complication rates. But a surgeon who specializes in a few procedures, as opposed to having a wide practice range, is likely to better utilize new technologies and refine their surgical techniques. Dr. John Birkmeyer, an executive vice president for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center believes that "[t]here is simply no more practical and meaningful question than, 'How many of these procedures do you do a year?'"

With changing medical technology, a perfect practice is seemingly impossible, but a surgeon with a specialized, high-volume practice is likely to be the "MVP" of that procedure.

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Mara Smith is a third year student at Drexel's Thomas R. Kline School of Law concentrating in health law.

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