Interview with Dr. Tony Anderson - March 17, 2015
What made you want to become a surgeon? Well, I think, in medical school, you do your rotations and you get to decide what you want to be. About 75% of medicine is non-surgical, that's the vast majority, so you get to decide if you want to do procedures or no procedures and you get to learn right away if you have interest in that or if you have any ability in that , and I think I wanted the variation of ding procedures. I think I wanted to be able to be not in the clinic all the time, but be in the clinic and the operating room, and I think there's a very nice, quick response to your work so you can see your work affect people's lives positively in surgery whereas in non-operative fields it takes a longer period of time before you see your efforts be successful or helpful. What is your favorite part of your job? I think it would be operating and then seeing people in postoperative settings, especially at six weeks after their surgery. I think that's very rewarding, seeing people after their surgery when it goes well. Medical marijuana is becoming legal in more and more states. Do you think it could ever have widespread application in modern medicine? Sure. People seem to like it for nausea. It's a very popular drug, that's for sure. What would be a drawback? Like anything else, I think that would be abuse. There's a big chance that it would be abused, just like any other drug that's legal (I.e. Alcohol). People will not use it in moderation just like food, sugar, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol. What advice would you give anyone pursuing a career in medicine? I would tell them that it's a petty wide range of commitment as far as education for various types of medical practitioners. It has very different implications. If you want to be a nurse, a nurse anesthetist, a physicians assistant, a surgery tech, a radiology tech, if you want to be a doctor, or a doctor with a specialty or a sub specialty, I think it would be good to talk to someone already in the medical field about all of the options so that you can help people and be in medicine without having to commit to all of the school which is intimidating for some people. What major changes have you seen in medicine since you've started your career? Well, I just started a short period of time ago. I think the way doctors are reacting to all of the changes in healthcare, a lot of the doctors coming out of their residency are less willing to sacrifice their youth, 30's and 40's to just being in the hospital. I think doctors want more shift work, more time with their family. I think the lifestyle has changed a lot and that's changed medicine a lot. Where do you think the medical system needs improvement? I think it's way too expensive. I think there's tons of waste, and much too expensive. I think medicine has a lot of room to save money. End of life care is a big place where money gets wasted- people that are sick in ICU's that are kept alive artificially, maybe even despite their wishes. I think there's probably too much surgery being performed. Things that are expensive are all being done too much, and things that are not expensive, like taking good care of people with prevention and primary care access are not being compensated for, so I think it's kind of a perverse system. You're rewarded when you do big expensive things in medicine, and you're penalized when you do things that are cheap but maybe will have more of a positive effect- like getting people to stop smoking, that would be huge if a doctor could do that, but you don't get paid as well. You should get paid as much for a hip replacement as you do for getting someone to stop smoking, because getting someone to stop smoking would be much more beneficial. As an orthopedic surgeon, what is the most common preventable injury you see? I think anything obesity related. I see a lot of knee arthritis, and there's a particular pattern of knee arthritis related to people who are just too obese and their joints wear out. Foot problems, all of those things. I think obesity is the biggest problem, more so than any sort of athletic injury, or not wearing seatbelts, or not wearing helmets, as much as people that are just wearing their body down by being too large. And the last, and most importantly- what's your favorite color? Green. |