Complications

I’m one of those very lucky people who love their job. I love people in and out: socially and anatomically. I enjoyed every surgical case I participated in: suturing blood vessels under the microscope for muscle flap, breast reconstructions and reductions, tummy tucks, working with intricate tendon systems of the hand and perfect architecture of the bones.

As a student during my surgical rotation at Faulkner Hospital I was lucky to scub in on thyroidectomy case with legendary Doctor Atul Gawande. He wrote a very well known book “Complications” that is a part of curriculum in medical schools. The essense of the book is figuring out how do mistakes happen in medicine and how to prevent them. He described a small hospital that only dealt with appendectomy and quoted their complication rate was many times smaller than the rest of the hospitals. The moral of the story was that very narrow specialization and focus of the practice allows medical provider to almost automate the procedure thus lowering the risk.

At the beginning of building of my practice I offered many services: cellulite treatment, hair transplantation, eyelid tightening, earlobe repairs and many more. Until I sat down to analyze what I’m doing and wrote a business plan. It turned out that I was offering procedures that a) I don’t enjoy doing b) not an expert in particular field. I had to be honest with myself and it turned out that I loved working with faces and more of an expert and enthusiast about proportions, esthetics, and anti-aging of the face. And that most people are seing me namely for that.
Thinking of Gawande’s example I truly believe narrow focus of the practice allows performing all procedures very efficiently with highest rate of satisfaction and lowest rate of complications.