Doctors and their teams - division of labour

[options]

Hi,

 

So I've been doing some research for a while and one thing that concerns me is how doctors divide their work up between assistants and themselves. Well respected doctors that charge a lot appear to have technicians do a large part of the work, which means there is no way of assessing how good they are. The technicians are often nameless, and the results of the doctors posted online may have been completed by well experienced assistants. Then when you go for your HT, you could get a new, inexperienced technician. So this is a variable you can't assess for in decided which doctor to go for.

 

Some doctors are very transparant in that they make this clear (one doctor has sent me info on a break down of roles in his team), and other doctors explain this on their website. However, others, including some of the best and most expensive are rather more opaque which makes it difficult in deciding.

 

What do people think about this potential problem? If a doctor with a good reputation was using assistants for large parts of the HT procedure, would you still go with him, giving that you haven no idea which tech you'd get on the day?

[moss]

I can understand why anyone would be a bit nervous if they felt they didnt know who was going to perform their proceedure.

 

The Doctor who did my proceedure has had the same team for years, i think a couple of them over 10 years if memory serves. The techs extracted the grafts. The Dr made all incisions and the techs placed the grafts. I had up to 3 people working on my head at a time (good job i have such a large head). The Dr was in and out of the room all day checking things were going ok, inspecting the work etc..

 

With hindsight, and the benefit of a very good experience I would happily have another proceedure with these guys even if the Dr was on holiday!!

 

Dont get me wrong, I picked this Dr on the strength of HIS work, and he is a great surgeon, and a very charming, nice chap to boot. But HIS work is made possible by him, AND his team. the Dr freely admitted to me he couldnt do what he does without his team and that they were an integral part of the practice.

 

A number of his team have been performing HTs longer than some Doctors! And are probably performing better work imo....

 

You have to know you have made the best decisions before you lay down on that Drs chair, so you have to know who will be performing the proceedure. But you should be aware that a Dr cant do everything him/herself..

[Lateatnight]

So is it safe to assume that, as a great surgeon stated on this platform, techs doing most of the operations and Doctor supervision, is the golden standard nowadays. I agree that great clinics are made by great teams lead by great surgeons.

Just to make a couple of names, clinics like Feriduni or Asmed are renowned to show on their website photos or details of the line up, so that the patients have a clear picture.

What should be questionable is the fact that often many teams are assembled with random techs or newbie, so makes no sense to pay for a great name, while being actually handled by mr o mrs X.

Just my two cents

[KO]

I think it depends on the clinic....for example Erdogan uses the same tech Dilek Cakir to extract grafts (supposedly)....if it is always the same guy, then it is good. If it is a random tech whose first time was 2 days ago or a team of techs that rotates.....ehhh

[moss]

absolutely agree with that..

 

So is it safe to assume that, as a great surgeon stated on this platform, techs doing most of the operations and Doctor supervision, is the golden standard nowadays. I agree that great clinics are made by great teams lead by great surgeons.

Just to make a couple of names, clinics like Feriduni or Asmed are renowned to show on their website photos or details of the line up, so that the patients have a clear picture.

What should be questionable is the fact that often many teams are assembled with random techs or newbie, so makes no sense to pay for a great name, while being actually handled by mr o mrs X.

Just my two cents

[options]

Thanks for sharing you thoughts guys. I find it strange that it's the extraction phase that is often handled by assistants.

[Lateatnight]

The risk of transection is high.

[1966kph]

All good points and well made.

In my honest opinion every single part of a ht is crucial for a good outcome if any part goes pear shaped it equals a poor result.

Any clinic that would not tell you who was going to be doing your ht or even a break down of who is going to be doing every particular phase of it you should walk away from.

What reason could they have for not being totally transparent [alarm bells]

Have a nice day

[hairweare]

Keep in mind when clinics are performing megasession, multi-patient procedures, it is not possible that only one doctor or even one technician for that matter will be exclusively working on your case. There are many variables in play when going this route which I believe explains the continuum of posted results from horrid to amazing that emanate from these clinics.

[options]

Any clinic that would not tell you who was going to be doing your ht or even a break down of who is going to be doing every particular phase of it you should walk away from.

What reason could they have for not being totally transparent [alarm bells]

Have a nice day

 

 

For the doctors with long waiting lists I guess a practical reason is that they don't know who will be working in six months time. If I asked member of my team at work if they will be working on a specific date six months from now, they'd look at me like I was crazy.