What do you believe are the most critical issues facing orthopaedic surgeons today?
I would advise the young orthopaedic surgeon to take a broad view as you are going to have a 35-year career or longer. You are certainly going to make a good living and do well financially, but you want to think about what you are doing with your time. Try to develop a good balance between work, family, and outside activities, rather than focus seemingly on the pressures that mount on the practice of orthopaedics itself. This is the same advice my mentors gave me. One of my mentors said that, when you are done with the first two-thirds of your career, you have to find something that keeps you engaged other than the practice of medicine itself. I think he was right about that. You do need to be engaged in other activities that keep you intellectually stimulated through the very end of your career. One of things I would say, for me and there is no mystery here – it is phenomenal the number of great physicians we have who work behind the scenes and how wonderful the Academy staff is to wo
