Blog from the Chair: There is a Google for that!

It is amazing what we can learn.

When I finished residency in 1989, most of the medical world assumed that you had learned everything you needed for a successful career in Orthopaedic Surgery.  It was the ABOS (American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery) that changed how we look at residency, such that our surgical training was just the beginning of our learning.  In order to do this, the ABOS created a time sensitive “board certification” and mandated the Orthopod to “recertify” every ten years to remain “legal.”  I missed a life long certificate by 36 months.  It turned out to be simple, dumb, luck.

But I didn’t think that in 1989, I thought I was unlucky.  Colleagues would be of two camps, either Pre or Post ’86.  Those in my shoes would constantly complain about the unfairness of it all and the ‘old-timers’ would gloat over their dumb luck.  Sitting through Orthopaedic meetings listen to questions about recertification, I would hear frantic complaints of ‘unfairness’ even discussions of ‘big brother’ controlling our ability to practice; comments which made me realize it was time to start preparing and stop complaining (that reminds me, a future blog).  Although I didn’t feel tremendously ‘advantaged,’ I simply planned on recertifying.  I became board certified in 1992 and went on to pass the computerized ‘recert’ exam in 2002 & again last year in 2012.  I also added the sports subspecialty certification (SSC, what used to be described as a CAQ, Certificate of Added Qualification) in 2011.  I found it almost addictive to prepare properly for the recertification examinations and it became a way for me to understand (and acknowledge) the importance of life long learning.

And that brings me to Google.  I have always been a reader.  Compared to available television, books became my only reliable form of quality indoor entertainment.  Growing up on the Western Slope, there were only weak TV signals crossing the mountains.  One example of quality television, say on a Saturday, were pre-recorded greyhound dog races on KREX out of Grand Junction, Colorado.I rarely turned on television.  Luckily, my father had bought a collection of the Classics (50 books from The Odyssey to The Scarlet Letter) from a travelling salesman who was visiting my Dad’s favorite watering hole. I started at one end and read every book.  Even with that start, in the pre-internet age, it was a challenge to find information even if you had two sets of encyclopedias that Dad had purchased along with ‘The Classics.”  Since 1986 and my forced conversion to life long learning, I look to my residents and students for educational advances especially involving the web.

And that brings me to this blog.  I have learned (thanks to Seth McCord and Schenck kids) that when I have a question on anything, I start with Google.  My ceiling fan clicks, I google the question, “How to stop a ceiling fan from clicking?” and after viewing a ‘You Tube’ video, I quickly learn three simple steps for a quiet fan.  90 minutes later (and challenging my thinning rotator cuffs!), all three ceiling fans at the Schenck House are silently rotating (#1 shaft bolt needs to be tightened, #2 blades are warped, #3 blades are out of balance).

In June, I had dinner with faculty and the ESSKA/AOSSM Travelling Fellows and discuss my well-worn technique of information acquisition.  Two days later, my wife, Trish, receives a text from Michelle Treme:  “Tell Bob I fixed the electrical problem at the house with Google”.   I now use it with everything from questions about computers, with any purchase, be it a trip to Carbondale or Cusco, and even for background work for a surgery, lecture, patient problem, or even how to blog.

So thank goodness that we don’t know everything in Orthopaedics, realizing that things change (as in life) and we must continue to learn.  And Google is now my first step, even though I still flip through our worn Britannica’s in Carbondale.  So the next time you are told that you have to follow different rules, like the ABOS re-certification rules in 1986, what we think is bad often turns out to be good luck.  Google it!

Bob Schenck
P&C
UNM Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation