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Who Can Do It All?

Arthur E. Baue, MD

Arch Surg. 2002;137:1413-1416.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Increased specialization, new technology, and fields of interest lead to an increase in journals, books, organizations, meetings, and courses. Are they all necessary? Do we need an American Board of Minimally Invasive Surgery? There is an International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery and their journal, Heart Surgery Forum. In 1999, Organ reviewed the problem of overlapping societies, memberships, and costs and called for a moratorium on further expansion and contracting.¹ Now the problem has intensified. Organ cited Billroth: "It is a most gratifying sign of the rapid progress of our time that our best textbooks become antiquated so quickly."¹(p1344) How many societies today would Billroth join, how many journals would he subscribe to, and how many textbooks would he buy?

Has a society or a journal ever announced that it has done its job and is packing it up? Why not? Many complex . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Dr Baue is a professor of Surgery emeritus, St Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo, and former Editor of the ARCHIVES.

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