%0 Journal Article
%T Surgical innovation is harder than it looks
%J Archive of "Canadian Journal of Surgery".
%D 2017
%R 10.1503/cjs.006217
%X A recent issue of Nature lamented about the dearth of surgical innovation.1 ¡°Innovation¡± is just one of many new catch phrases invading medicine; it has become a hotter phrase than ¡°knowledge translation.¡± It just sounds so futuristic! It also seems to be applicable across community and academic lines if promoted properly. There are other new buzzwords populating news releases on new opportunities. ¡°Disruptive research¡± is another commonly used phrase. But almost nothing in medicine is disruptive, contrary to the news releases. New scalpels and laser-guided surgery are not disruptive ¡ª they are improvements to older concepts. Similarly, new Global Positioning System technology is not really disrupting the automobile industry; rather, self-driving cars will be disruptive, as they will bring new models of income and potentially free time for other tasks while driving. Hacking Health initiatives are also timely and mantra-like. But products of health hacking are not taking over my operating room and disrupting my practice. So, we are left with surgical innovation as a real goal for surgeons despite a problem with its reported dearth
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5453753/