Surgery/Specialties Editor's Note Though physician burnout and satisfaction with work-life integration are improving, physicians remain at high risk for burnout, compared to workers in other fields, this study finds. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and the American Medical Association surveyed 30,456 US physicians in more than 20 specialties; 5,197…
Editor's Note Age 50 to 80 years was a strong predictor of returning to independent living and walking 1 year after hip fracture surgery in this study. Of 600 patients aged 50 and older included in the study, 3.07% aged 50 to 80 years were living in an institution 1…
Editor's Note Making a simple change to the electronic system used by physicians to order urine tests can cut by 45% the number of bacterial cultures ordered without compromising the identification of patients who need treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs), this study finds. In this analysis of 18,954 patients…
Editor's Note Communities in the US with more primary care physicians had lower mortality rates than those with fewer physicians, this study finds. Results showed a: 51.5 day increase in life expectancy for every 10 additional primary care physicians per 100,000 people 19.2 day increase in life expectancy for every…
Editor's Note: For more recent data on obstructive sleep apnea care, risk factors, and resources, see the article, "Blast from the past: Revised data, evolving standards for OSA care in the perioperative setting," published in July 2025. An estimated 22 million people in the US have obstructive sleep apnea…
Editor's Note In this prospective study, nonfrailty and elective surgery were positively associated with functional recovery of older patients after major surgery. Of 754 community-living patients 70 years or older who were analyzed, 266 survived major surgery with increased disability and were monitored for 6 months. A total of 174…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on February 15 identified Medtronic, Inc’s (Dublin, Ireland) recall of it’s Dual Chamber Implantable Pulse Generators (IPGs) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the possibility of a software error that can result in a lack of…
Editor's Note Because a subset of patients are responsible for a disproportionate share of Medicare spending, targeting high-cost patients (ie, “hot spotting”) for cost containment efforts would be an effective strategy to reduce costs in surgical patients, this study finds. Using Medicare claims data from 2010 to 2013, University of…
Editor's Note Using Fitbit activity monitors to improve assessment of daily ambulation, this study found that each step taken towards 1,000 steps the day after major surgery resulted in significantly lower odds of a prolonged hospital length of stay (LOS). This analysis of 100 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 6 posted a letter that was sent to healthcare providers to increase their awareness of the association between all breast implants, regardless of filling or texture, and breast implant associated-anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL). As of September 30, 2018, the…
