ENT features
Philosophy and reality of entrepreneurship
Before you take the time to read this article, be informed that it is indeed hard to be an entrepreneur. It warrants passion, sacrifice, total commitment and willingness to spend day and night (even in your sleep) thinking and working...
Entrepreneurial aspirations for the otolaryngologist
Entrepreneurship is a process of identifying an idea and starting a business venture with this idea. It requires generation of a business model or plan that emphasises the value proposition for the customer. The model must identify the partners, resources,...
Job Ahead: understanding the business and financial aspects of US practice
Dr Christiansen brings over 30 years of experience as a practising otolaryngologist both in private practice and in academic medicine as Associate Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Dr Christiansen started his career in...
Establishing a medical device company: an ENTrepreneur’s experience
In 2004, while I was suturing the mucopericondrial flaps for a septoplasty, I thought to myself, “there must be an easier and faster way of doing this”. Even though I had no formal training in business or medical device development,...
Developing an Innovation for ENT – from Idea to Market: how ‘e-i’ did it
Background endoscope-i (e-i) Ltd was incorporated into Companies House on December 3rd, 2012 following eight months of developing our first project, a simple iPhone adapter for endoscopes. Of the three founding shareholders, two are ENT surgeons and one a lecturer...
Changing behaviour with a human factors approach
The Francis Report (2013) identified multiple problems relating to the safety culture of Stafford Hospital in the period 2005 – 2009, as well as serious failings in the supervisory and regulatory systems of the NHS. Particular criticism was directed at...
Surgical technology and operating room safety failures: lessons from vascular and general surgery
Background – surgical technology and otolaryngology An estimated 234 million major surgical procedures are performed annually worldwide. This requires the interaction of multidisciplinary teams with varying contributions of surgical technology and therefore makes surgical procedures prone to multiple sources of...
Doctors’ health and wellbeing: depression in surgeons
Dr Clare Gerada and Richard Jones work for the Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), a specialist service for doctors and dentists in the London area with mental health / addiction problems (www.php.nhs.uk). Here they discuss some of their preliminary findings (specific...
The workplace environment and doctors’ health (ENT)
It is well established that doctors have higher levels of stress, depression and suicide than the general population [1] and most other professional groups (Figure 1 illustrates the factors that can make us ill). In addition they have high levels...
Is one glass of wine on call safe?
It’s a standard question for those about to sit a Specialist Training (ST) interview; you are on call and you call a senior colleague in to perform an operation. You smell alcohol on the breath of the surgeon, so what...
The role of training programmes in protecting patients
ENT trainees are fully registered doctors who have responsibilities to comply with the requirements of Good Medical Practice. This includes ensuring that they put the interests of their patients at the heart of their practice. This duty is complementary to...
Simulation: human factors scenario training
It is said that surgical training has suffered as a result of a combination of factors – through the introduction of work time restrictions such as the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) [1], a limit on the number of years...
