从外科医师到外科学家

一名刚完成接受外科专业培训，考试合格的外科医师，他的前面有两条路可供他选择：坏的道路和好的道路。如果向坏的道路走，他可以到达两个终点。（1）不良外科医师：这些医师以医学知识来欺骗病人钱财，或夸大病情，从中获利；（2）低劣外科医师：他们使用不达标或已淘汰的知识和技术治疗病人。另一条道路是向好的道路，但走这条道路是要不断进行终身学习和评核。最终能否成为一名合格或优秀的外科医师，主要靠的是自己的天赋和个人所付出的努力。一名优秀的外科医师如果只是通过手术，他的一生只能造福有限的病人。但是如果一名外科医师通过医学研究，找出一套新学说、新技术，就可使更多的病人受益。能够称为外科宗师，要求能把新学说发扬光大，成家成派。更要有高尚人格和品德，令人敬佩。

From a surgeon to a master surgeon

From a surgeon to a master surgeon Lau W.Y.Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China Abstract Facing a surgical specialist after he has finished with his surgical training are two roads that he can choose to follow.If he chooses to follow the road of the evils, he can arrive at one of the following two points:- a bad doctor or a poor doctor.A bad doctor is someone who uses his professional knowledge or skills to cheat or to take advantage of his patients. Essentially, this is a bad doctor doing bad things with evil intention.A poor doctor is a doctor who is poor in knowledge or skills. The doctor’s intention might be good but because he is applying outdated knowledge or skills in treating his patients, his patients suffer. On the other hand, the doctor can choose to follow the road of the good, but he needs to spend efforts in updating his knowledge and skills by doing continuing medical education and auditing. Whether at the end this doctor becomes a qualified surgical specialist or a good surgical specialist would depend on how much efforts he has spent, and how talented he is.Without research, a good surgical specialist can never become a master surgeon. If a surgeon just performs operations, the number of patients who can benefit from him is limited. However, if the surgeon can, through his research, come up with a new knowledge or a new treatment which other surgeons can follow, the number of patients who can benefit would be many folds more.A master of the master surgeons is someone who comes up with a revolutionary idea in surgery that changes the conventional thinking. He also has to process the high ethics and personality that everybody would admire.