Despite it all, we are still technicians.

摘要

After listening to a well-presented and well-illustrated paper on a technique of vascular pedicle grafting for scaphoid nonunion at the recent American Society for Surgery of the Hand annual meeting, a colleague leaned over to me bemoaning the fact that there seemed to be fewer and fewer papers emphasizing surgical techniques. With the paradigm shift toward evidence-based studies and evaluations of new technologies, the truth is that some of these are less inspiring or applicable to the practicing hand surgeon. Although we will always be physicians first and foremost, we are progressively using allied health personnel such as physician's.assistants, nurse practitioners in addition to hospitalists to provide at least some of our direct clinical care. The fact remains, however, that our patients will continue to look for us to provide the best possible technical care when they require a surgical procedure.