http://www.ctsnet.org In My Opinion en-us Copyright 2005 CTSNet webmaster@ctsnet.org http://www.ctsnet.org/graphics/logos/organizations/ctsnet_logo_wht195.gif http://www.ctsnet.org 195 50 Yesterday, President Obama lifted the federal ban on the funding of human embryonic stem cell research. I write this now in direct response to the 2004 CTSNet “In My Opinion” editorial by Dr. Lawrence I. Bonchek, which chastised the then President Bush for limiting federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-68.html Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:21:00 EDT After a long period of denial, physicians are now recognizing that hospitals share common ground with manufacturing facilities and therefore require a form of industrial quality assurance that has long been commonplace in the business world.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-67.html Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:55:00 EST A Contrarian View of Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-66.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:46:00 EDT Lung cancer is the most common lethal malignancy in the US, estimated to have killed more than 160,000 American citizens in 2007 alone. Although the patients most at risk can be relatively easily identified--smokers, over the age of 40--there is as yet no proven effective screening method.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-65.html Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:01:00 EDT Gloom pervades about medicine as a profession and about cardiothoracic surgery. Trainees and young surgeons are often tainted for not having the same work ethic as older folks. There is concern that we are neither attracting "the best and the brightest," nor is cardiothoracic surgery an attractive career.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-64.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:39:00 EST In July 2005, in the "In My Opinion" column on the CTSnet homepage, Professor Duke Cameron published an article titled "Surgery as Spectacle", expressing his concern about the attitudes engendered by the recent prevalence of live surgery.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-63.html Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:33:00 EDT During my thoracic surgical residency though the late 1950’s to the middle 1960’s, it became apparent to me that the traditional thoracotomy incision was the most burdensome and painful portion of the thoracic operation. Insertion of the rib-spreader, no matter how carefully opened, frequently caused ribs to fracture and costochondral joints to become dislocated.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-62.html Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:10:00 EDT During the past twenty years the American public has energetically intervened in what had been the professional private reserve of medical quality assurance.  Numerous bills have mandated public reporting of surgical results, changes in training schedules, and increased FDA scrutiny of drug approvals.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-61.html Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:59:00 EDT Ralph Lewis has had a long and distinguished career in thoracic surgery. A surgical innovator and pioneer in his specialty, he was experimenting with mini-approaches to thoracic problems long before these approaches became popular.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-60.html Wed, 09 Aug 2006 01:50:00 EDT A conundrum lurks near the center of important institutions that serve society. While membership in such an institution often requires an unusual skill set, that skill set never characterizes the institution; in fact, it must be subordinated to a greater task that society assigns to the institution. 

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-59.html Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:15:00 EDT Off-pump surgery was expected to be the saviour of coronary surgery when introduced in the late nineties.  The reason for it's failure is hotly debated by the protagonists of the on- and off-camps and certainly the big disappointment was the failure of most OPCAB series to show a reduction in neurological complications. 

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-58.html Mon, 22 May 2006 10:00:00 EDT After 20 plus years as a cardiothoracic surgeon I decided to shift my focus from surgery to cardiothoracic surgical (CTS) critical care. Even though I directed my own critical care as a cardiothoracic surgeon with the very able assistance of my anesthesiology colleagues and the critical care nursing staff, now that my professional energy is primarily dedicated...

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-57.html Fri, 03 Feb 2006 10:00:00 EST For the past half-century, innovation has been the tonic chord of cardiac surgery.  We cannot tell our history without recounting the development of ideas, techniques, and devices that progressively revolutionized our capacity to serve those with heart disease. 

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-56.html Wed, 14 Sep 2005 11:00:00 EDT Surgery as Spectacle

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-55.html Fri, 15 Jul 2005 01:00:00 EDT NO JOBS IN CARDIAC SURGERY:   Is this just a fallacy or is there any truth to it? Well, just look around and talk to your colleagues, read over the CTSNet section for “Issues in training” and  you will see that people are looking for jobs which are just not there at all, regardless of your training, years of research, graduating institution, etc.

]]> http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/newsandviews/inmyopinion/articles/article-54.html Mon, 06 Jun 2005 02:50:00 EDT