Future education and practice initiatives in hand surgery: improving fulfillment of patient needs

In the current health care environment, there are several areas in the delivery of health care to patients having hand surgery that need improvement to adequately fulfill patient needs, including difficulty in maintaining adequate emergency call coverage for patients having hand surgery, decreasing trends in hand surgeons willing to perform microsurgery and replantation, and deficiencies in musculoskeletal education of non-hand surgery providers. Both educational reforms and reforms in the practice environment are needed to improve the ability of hand surgeons to fulfill patient needs in the future.