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The authors provide a simple primer for hand surgeons to further educate themselves on the basics of investing, tax reduction strategies that are completely legal, insurance protection, especially in your formative years, and unusual options available for further consideration. There are many ways for further education including publications related to finance, investment clubs of like-minded individuals, mentors that have extensive experience in these areas, and formal courses sponsored by business schools or other venues. The opportunities and regulatory environment are ever-changing, so one needs to constantly keep up with taxation rules and newer investment options., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In part 2 of this review series on how to engage with the medical device industry as a surgeon, we summarize the patent application process. The federal government must approve any invention you might try to bring to market as safe-to-use for patients before any marketing can be initiated via the Food and Drug Administration submission process detailed herein., (Copyright © 2021 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The global orthopedic devices market is expected to reach nearly $72 billion by 2026, representing 12% of the projected global medical devices market. The vantage point of surgeons conveniently places them at the crossroads of surgery, therapy, and inpatient and outpatient dynamics, providing fertile ground for the invention of medical devices. This review article aims to provide an overview for how surgeons should take on launching a product in the medical device industry. In Part 1, we cover idea development, industry partnerships, and commercialization. Part 2 will cover the patent and United States Food and Drug Administration submission processes., (Copyright © 2021 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The first carpometacarpal (CMC) joint is a common site of osteoarthritis, with arthroplasty being a common procedure to provide pain relief and improve function with low complications. However, little is known about risk factors that may predispose a patient for postoperative complications., Methods: All CMC joint arthroplasty from 2005 to 2015 in the prospectively collected American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database were identified. Bivariate testing and multiple logistic regressions were performed to determine which patient demographics, surgical variables and medical comorbidities were significant predictors for complications. These included wound related, cardiopulmonary, neurological and renal complications, return to the operating room (OR) and readmission., Results: A total of 3344 patients were identified from the database. Of those, 45 patients (1.3%) experienced a complication including wound issues (0.66%), return to the OR (0.15%) and readmission (0.27%) amongst others. When performing bivariate analysis, age over 65, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class, diabetes and renal dialysis were significant risk factors. Multiple logistic regression after adjusting for confounding factors demonstrated that insulin-dependent diabetes and ASA Class 4 had a strong trend while renal dialysis was a significant risk factor., Conclusions: CMC arthroplasty has a very low overall complication rate of 1.3% and wound complication rate of 0.66%. Diabetes requiring insulin and ASA Class 4 trended towards significance while renal dialysis was found to be a significant risk factors in logistic regression. This information may be useful for preoperative counseling and discussion with patients who have these risk factors.

Purpose: Stenosing tenosynovitis (STS) is a common condition treated by hand surgeons. Limited evidence exists to support the nonsurgical management of STS. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate a cohort of patients with STS, and to determine the strategy for treating patients with this condition that is most cost effective in terms of dollars reimbursed by payers., Methods: Prospective data were collected on patients diagnosed with STS between March 2014 and September 2014. All patients were initially treated with a corticosteroid injection. Patients with persistent symptoms were given the option of injection or surgery. A maximum of 3 injections were offered. All patients were evaluated every 6 months through office appointments or phone calls. A cost analysis was performed in our cohort using actual reimbursement rates for injections, initial and established patient visits, and facility and physician fees for surgery, using the reimbursement rates from the 6 payers covering this patient cohort. Cost savings were calculated based on offering 1, 2, and 3 injections., Results: Eighty-eight digits in 82 patients were followed for an average of 21.9 months (range, 18.7-22.7 mo) after an initial corticosteroid injection. Thirty-five digits went on to surgical release, whereas 53 digits were treated nonsurgically. Had all patients initially undergone surgery, the cost would have totaled $169,088.98 ($1,921 per digit). Offering up to 3 injections yielded a potential savings of $72,730 ($826 per digit) or 43% of the total cost. For the 33 patients who underwent more than 1 injection, offering a second injection yielded potential savings of $15,956 ($484 per digit, 22.7%), and for the 7 patients presenting a third time, a third injection saved $1,986 ($283 per digit, 14.5%)., Conclusions: Based on the data from our cohort, the efficient way to treat STS in terms of health care dollars spent is to offer up to 3 injections before surgical release. The first injection had the highest component of cost savings, at $826 per digit., Type of Study/level of Evidence: Economic/Decision Analysis III., (Copyright © 2018 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Informed consent is a pillar of ethical medicine which requires patients to fully comprehend relevant issues including the risks, benefits, and alternatives of an intervention. Given the average reading skill of US adults is at the 8th grade level, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend patient information materials should not exceed a 6th grade reading level. We hypothesized that text provided in invasive procedure consent forms would exceed recommended readability guidelines for medical information., Materials and Methods: To test this hypothesis, we gathered procedure consent forms from all surgical inpatient hospitals in the state of Rhode Island. For each consent form, readability analysis was measured with the following measures: Flesch Reading Ease Formula, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Fog Scale, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Automated Readability Index, and Linsear Write Formula. These readability scores were used to calculate a composite Text Readability Consensus Grade Level., Results: Invasive procedure consent forms were found to be written at an average of 15th grade level (i.e., third year of college), which is significantly higher than the average US adult reading level of 8th grade (p < 0.0001) and the AMA/NIH recommended readability guidelines for patient materials of 6th grade (p < 0.0001)., Conclusion: Invasive procedure consent forms have readability levels which makes comprehension difficult or impossible for many patients. Efforts to improve the readability of procedural consent forms should improve patient understanding regarding their healthcare decisions., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)