Did you know that the advancement of our ability to treat disease and injury over the last century has significantly grown? New studies show that by 2020, medical knowledge will double every 73 days compared to doubling every 50 years in the 1950s (Denson, 2011). There are three important ways this impacts surgeons, patients and medical device companies. Read more below.
While this has opened the door to new life-saving options, in general, new medical technologies are far more complicated than simpler techniques from the past. The medical training system needs innovation for these complications, as it can place constraints on surgeons of all levels and medical device companies.
Patient safety is critical when performing procedures of any complexity. The accidental misuse of devices, which can cause adverse events during procedures, can largely be avoided with proper training.
Proper training allows surgeons to get the practice they need before they ever step foot into the operating room. Besides studying or practicing with a cadaver, which can be time consuming, expensive or difficult (and costly) to schedule, a training tool like virtual reality can help surgeons practice complex procedures anywhere, anytime.
There is an additional issue putting pressure on our medical education system: an aging population that requires more surgical procedures with fewer surgeons to treat them.
Take a look at these two statistics:
The need for qualified, confident and fully-trained surgeons will be great to treat this growing population. If there is a shortage of surgeons, making sure the field is adapting, innovating and providing readily available training can help retain surgeons and give confidence to new surgeons entering the field.
