Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Proceduralists

From the Wall Street Journal article:
With a steady decline in the number of doctors trained to perform such skills-intensive medical procedures in recent years, Cedars and other large academic medical centers are looking for ways to fill the gap. They are creating special procedure services and new procedure-training programs for medical residents. Teams of doctors known as proceduralists are now available at some centers with special expertise in tunneling a catheter into a vein, slicing an incision in the neck for an airway, or plunging a needle into a patient's back for a spinal tap.

While not a medical specialty in its own right, procedural medicine is emerging as an important new role for physicians with the manual dexterity and steady nerves to perform risky procedures. And hospitals say they see reduced complication rates when services are performed by physicians who are very well-versed in the procedures.
Click here to read the article (subscription required).

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