U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
NEWS > HEALTH > AMA INVESTIGATION REVEALS THAT BRAIN SURGERY NOT AL THAT HARD AFTER ALL
AMA INVESTIGATION REVEALS THAT BRAIN SURGERY NOT AL THAT HARD AFTER ALL
May 25 2009
Chicago IL – The phrase ‘It’s not exactly brain surgery’ and similar variations has often been used to indicate an act of relative ease. Though it has never officially been a measure of intelligence or the ease of a particular project, brain surgery has long been known as the primary barometer with which to judge the simplicity of a given 
task. Though few have ever doubted that brain surgery is indeed an intense and complicated task requiring great skill and intelligence, a recent study by the American Medical Association indicates that it may not be as difficult as people have long assumed.
Brain surgery (properly called Neurosurgery) requires four years of undergraduate training, four years of medical school, and at least six years of residency training in order to be proficient and officially licensed in the United States. The study commissioned by the AMA was an effort to determine if such level of intense schooling is indeed necessary or is merely the result of the evolution of the discipline as it relates to common colloquialism. The study showed that indeed such extended schooling may not be absolutely necessary.
“We are constantly looking at ways to streamline our process to not only reduce unnecessary waste but also increase the number of surgeons available. As the population ages the need for specialities like neurosurgery is only going to increase and we need to be able to meet the demand that will otherwise overwhelm our medical system,” said a spokesperson for the AMA. “By cutting down the number of years spent in school, which we feel is at least partially a result of neurosurgeons wanting to feel superior, we will dramatically increase the number of surgeons in the field. We feel this can also affect other specialities which of course will have equal increases in demand in the coming years.”
The association did not publicly reveal the types of recommendations and reductions they are making but it is expected to be quite significant. 
“As long as they are doing this reduction safely things should be alright. The medical industry has long held itself higher than any other profession, something that simply didn’t exist in antiquity when doctors and surgeons were considered along the same lines as cobblers, and it can only be for the benefit of all of us to see them come down a little from that attitude and engage in a little humility,” said Scrape TV Health analyst Rebecca Phelps. “Many doctors are more intelligent than the average person but simply put there is no reason for them to lord that over people. Going to medical school for a decade or more won’t make a person any smarter, just more knowledgeable, but there’s only so much information the human brain can hold and neurosurgeons should know that better than anyone.”
Aside from being one the largest organs in the human body and the centre of the nervous system, the brain is the repository of human knowledge, reasoning power, speech, and the essence of what makes a person human. It has long been a great source of mystery and an important part of the human experience.
“There’s all kind of things that we simply don’t know about the human brain and sitting around in school for years and years isn’t going to suddenly solve all those questions. There is something to be said in spending a lifetime studying the biology and physiology of the brain but spending that kind of time to become what is essentially a mechanic has always seemed a little overkill,” continued Phelps. “It will hurt nothing to take some of the wind out of the sails of the intellectual elite except maybe a few egos. There’s little doubt that brain surgery will always be a specialized discipline that relatively few will be capable of performing, but at least this shows that brain surgeons aren’t all better than the rest of us and that brain surgery is in fact achievable by the masses.”
It’s not yet clear what colloquialism will replace brain surgery as the benchmark for ease.
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
NEWS > HEALTH > AMA INVESTIGATION REVEALS THAT BRAIN SURGERY NOT AL THAT HARD AFTER ALL
|
