Learning the landscape: medicine in the political arena

Excerpt

We work in very controlled environments each day caring for our patients, using the best available tools to reach hidden areas of the gastrointestinal anatomy and to minimize incisions with the associated pain and suffering. We do this work in a scientific manner, bringing our experience and skill forward to solve an anatomic problem in a manner that can be replicated by ourselves and our colleagues over and over again. With the exception of the occasional surgical revelation, which really changes things, we can report and clearly pilot data that have meaning within our advancing profession. It is a very comfortable and comforting environment in which to work. …