A multidisciplinary approach and an eye on what’s next for spine surgery is what makes Yale a known leader in the specialty, Jacky Yeung, MD, said.
Dr. Yeung, of Yale Medicine, discussed with Becker’s his work and how he wants to grow as a surgeon.
Note: This conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
Question: U.S. News and World Report named Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital as one of the top 50 hospitals for neurosurgery and orthopedics for 2025-26. How are you helping to differentiate your spine program?
Dr. Jacky Yeung: My partner and I account for almost 30% of the entire Yale system spinal surgery volume. What makes us special is that we have a really robust multidisciplinary system involving physiatrists and interventional pain doctors so patients, oftentimes will have exhausted less invasive treatments prior to coming to us surgeons. Everything is very streamlined, and I think that’s what really gives us an edge over your regular community practices that are a little bit more fragmented.
Q: What are your goals in the next 12 months to grow your practice?
JY: There has been a professor at Brown University that left for a private practice in New York, Albert Telfeian, MD, PhD. He’s one of the gurus, but with his departure to New York, now I am the most experienced neurosurgeon in endoscopic spine surgery throughout the region by default. There’s a lot of endoscopic spinal surgeons out there, but they are limited to lumbar spine and sometimes in one specific approach of endoscopic surgery. Endoscopic surgery is a very wide spectrum, and I think the field is going to evolve with more depth such that, and I’m hoping that more people will be able to apply the technique from the front to the entire spinal column.
Q: What advice do you have for spine surgeons who want to expand their breadth with endoscopic surgery? Do we need more tools from the industry, better reimbursements or simply facing the learning curves?
JY: I think the industry is already catching up, especially with the involvement of larger orthopedic companies. The industry has already provided ample resources for training and the effort is out there, I would advise other surgeons to take absolute advantage of all of those sponsored sessions and training. In addition, there is no shortage of existing endoscopic surgeons who are willing to proctor and discuss cases. One point of pride of being in surgery and medicine is that we always have peers to lift us up.
But there are also financial limitations such as with CPT 62380. There’s enough momentum from professional societies to really make a push to change the code. Open surgery codes were invented decades ago with no consideration for endoscopy. Medicare says “direct visualization” includes endoscopy but many insurers say endoscopy doesn’t equate to direct visualization. And CPT 62380 doesn’t reflect the breadth of endoscopic surgery, and that needs to be changed.
To surgeons who are thinking about going into endoscopy, if we wait for that to come to fruition, then they would fall behind the curve. The main thing is, pragmatically, patients know that certain surgeons offer endoscopy and come to them. But sometimes their pathology of disease just calls for a fusion or an arthroplasty. It’s not all just about endoscopy. It’s about the bigger picture of comprehensive spinal care. My advice is it’s always good to learn now, while it’s still picking up, so that we don’t fall behind the eight ball.
