FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Centers of Excellence for Neuromodulation: A Critical Proposal

摘要

As a field, we have struggled with methods to increase the efficacy of our procedures, decrease their risks, and improve patient outcomes. By doing so, we further legitimize our field, improve patient satisfaction, and demonstrate the cost-effectiveness that is necessary to drive reimbursement and thus patient access to neuromodulation procedures. One important way to improve results in our specialty is to ensure that neuromodulation practitioners have, indeed, practiced, and practiced quite a lot. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell points to the correlation between the level of practice and excellence. "The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours" (1). Although Gladwell discusses excellence in sports, music, and computer science, this correlation appears to hold for virtually any discipline. He quotes Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist whose research focuses on the development of excellence/The emerging pictures from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything" (2).