Fast forwarding: the evolution of neurosurgery. The 2005 presidential address

Despite the major social and economic reorganization of medical practice that has taken place during the past 40 years, neurosurgery-the most fascinating specialty in all of clinical medicine-has grown and prospered. Today, this specialty is poised for an era of spectacular advancement and improvement in care; however, significant problems with the potential to retard this growth face neurosurgery. Among these problems is the medical liability situation, which has the potential to destabilize neurosurgical practices and the current health care delivery system. Other issues facing neurosurgery include the potential for loss of the unique nature of the specialty through a conversion to shift-worker surgeons and increasing reliance on profit-seeking institutions for financial stability and liability protection. Lifestyle choices are of growing importance and currently discourage women from entering the field. With a growing knowledge base, there is the recognition that it may not be possible for most individuals to master all aspects of the specialty. There is continued confusion about manpower needs. In addition, some neurosurgeons are choosing to practice in ways that fail to meet the neurosurgeon's obligations to society. There is a growing number of neurosurgeons who dislike providing trauma coverage and there is the potential for some neurosurgeons to give up intracranial neurosurgery. The author believes that it is not competition that will improve the delivery of neurosurgical care and allow for continued growth, but cooperation, and that it will be possible to alleviate many of our problems through increased regionalization of neurosurgical care delivery. This proposal has the potential to promote the formation of neurosurgical teams, ameliorate the problem of physician fatigue, allow greater development of subspecialty skills, and ease the burden of trauma call. It should allow satisfactory solutions to lifestyle considerations and encourage more women to enter the field of neurosurgery. Such a transformation would encourage advances in care to be brought rapidly into the clinical setting and allow neurosurgery to be practiced at the very highest level.