Abstract
Not long ago before a New York audience of general surgeons I was asked the question: what will be the future of esophageal surgery? My answer, based on personal sagacity, conjecture and guesses, was designed not to speculate what is to be, but to stimulate what could be. In short, I said General Surgery will be forced into subspecialization and esophageal will become part of a subspecialty called Foregut Surgery. The reason for my prediction was the existence of strong forces that are pushing general surgery in this direction. The movement towards sub-specialization is a natural phenomenon. Stones drop, water wets, fire burns and knowledge begets sub-specialization. Resistance to this natural process can slow it down, but can never stop the inevitable flow from reaching its natural end. The working schema of this natural process is: new knowledge fosters specialization, specialization fosters new technology, and new technology fosters new knowledge. By this process the present becomes history and the future labeled progress.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Italia
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DeMeester, T.R. (2012). The Future of Esophageal Surgery. In: Bonavina, L. (eds) Innovation in Esophageal Surgery. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2469-4_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2469-4_16
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