Orthopedic surgeons have found themselves surprised by hospitals’ ability to scoop up physician practices and patients’ heightened interest in new technologies.
These two surgeons recently connected with Becker’s to share what part of their practice they’ve least expected.
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is something in your practice that has surprised you the most in the last five years?
Jonathan Vigdorchik, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at HSS (New York City): Patients crave data and technology. We have seen an explosion in the stock market driven by the tech sector, and a meteoric rise in Apple Watch, Whoop, Oura, Fitbit and glucose monitors tracking everything in our daily lives. The same is true for a joint replacement patient undergoing surgery. They want robotics, they want online messaging platforms to keep in contact with their care team, and they want smart implants or devices to track their recovery after surgery. Really, they want to know, “How am I doing compared to everyone else out there?” And if something is not right, they want to know about it, and they want their doctor informed too.
Jeffrey Ziberfarb, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston): What has surprised me the most in the past five years is the ease with which hospitals have bought up primary care physician practices. This is disruptive to prior orthopedic patient referral patterns, as there are incentives to keep these patients in house. This has led to even more loss of autonomy, difficulty obtaining primary care and lack of patient satisfaction. Fortunately, patients do respond to high-quality patient-centered care and will continue to stay loyal to those of us still in private practice.
