I just shook hands with a face transplant patient and did not know it

January 21, 2015- By Steven E. Greer, MD

I was in the process of being given a personal tour of the new facilities of the NYU Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery when the doctor interrupted and introduced me to a patient. The adult male was Read more »

Will clinical excellence finally be rewarded under ACO’s?

March 21^st, 2011

Most of the respected leaders in medicine are indeed also good clinicians. However, their clinical skills were not the most important quality that allowed them to achieve tenured Professor, Chief, or Chair status. The current academic medical center paradigm rewards journal publications, rain-making NIH grant ability, and fee-for-service revenue generation above clinical skills.

To use surgery as an example, in the current fee-for-service reimbursement systems, Read more »

The stages of wound healing in time lapse

(Best viewed in full screen 1080iHD)

Surgery residents might find it interesting to watch this time lapse video of wound healing and correlate it with the basic science chapters in all text books. Note the peripheral radial contraction patterns of the intact skin caused by fibroblasts migrating and pulling using integrin molecules, the color changes of the granulation tissue, the migration of the epithelial cells inward, the final reduction in erythema after the epithelium covers the granulation tissue, etc.

For a thorough discussion of wound healing biology that is on display in the video, refer to this chapter from The Handbook of Plastic Surgery edited by Greer et al