Here’s a transcript of the video about choosing an orthopedic doctor:
In this segment I’d like to spend a little bit of time about choosing a physician. First off I am an orthopedic trained specialist. That means that I finished five years of an orthopedic residency, including one year in general surgery. This was followed by a year of specialty training in sports medicine, arthroscopic and minimally invasive surgery involving the shoulder, elbow and knee. All I did for a year was work with a specialist who took care of professional teams in Tampa Bay as well as the University of Miami. I did procedures only involving arthroscopic or minimally invasive procedures or reconstructive procedures.
When you’re choosing an orthopedic doctor or any other physician, you have to put as much emphasis and research into picking your physician as you would as buying a new car or investing in a home. This is your body and you have to do your due diligence in picking that physician and in making sure that physician is right for you. When you’re researching a physician it is key first off to make sure that you have a physician that’s been trained; a D.O. or an M.D., and then you can look at their training, whether or not they spent five years in a residency, what type of residency was that; an orthopedic surgeon is usually what you’d be looking for. After the five years of residency you have the option of doing specialty training.
There is a general orthopedist that does a little bit of everything, but they did not receive specialty training in one particular area. The specialist usually has the extra year of training in a certain area, whether it’s sports medicine, hand, total joint arthroplasty, spine, etcetera. If you’re looking for a specialist then you want to make sure that they have gone to a fellowship for that sub-specialty.
Nowadays we have CAQ examinations, which is a Certificate of Added Qualification, which means that not only did that surgeon finish an orthopedic residency, finish a fellowship, but they also obtained a Certificate of Added Qualification which means you have to take another test on top of that which shows you are an expert in the field of sports medicine and have completed a certain number of cases to get to that point.
I always recommend to any patient, if there’s a question about your diagnosis, and the physician or surgeon is not answering your questions clearly to a point where you could walk out of that office and feel very confident about your decision, get a second opinion. I always recommend that to my patients if there’s every any question about my recommendations; I will happily recommend a second opinion.
Secondly, always research your physicians, whether in their office by asking for a background biography card or on their websites. You can also talk to families and friends. I would recommend caution about the Internet because sometimes it can be misleading. I think the best resources are usually from the physicians’ offices themselves, or from family and friends who have seen that physician and been treated by that physician. So if you have any questions or comments regarding this, or if you would like a second opinion, please feel free to contact my office using the Contact Us page or call the office at 281-633-8600.
