Life After Residency – Prepare With Beyond Residency – The Real World

A course focusing on the business side of neurosurgery brought a group of residents a little closer to a productive launch of their careers. The second annual AANS “Beyond Residency: The Real World” course was held on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002, at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago. Residents from Midwestern and Eastern states were in attendance.

“Given the environmental pressures we encounter daily as practicing neurosurgeons, it is vital that our residents begin practice equipped with basic business acumen,” remarked Leonard Cerullo, MD, course chair. “This seminar was a step in the right direction, providing an overview of critical non-clinical issues.” Educational topics included:

• basic coding;
• how to evaluate a job and establish a practice;
• practice management;
• medical malpractice issues; and
• academic versus private practice paradigms.

The residents were afforded the opportunity to ask questions of some of the most knowledgeable neurosurgeons regarding these topics. In addition to Dr. Cerullo, faculty included: James Bean, MD; William Couldwell, MD; Mick Perez-Cruet, MD; Catherine Gilmore-Lawless, MBA; Robert Goodkin, MD; Mark Gorney, MD; Samuel Hassenbusch, MD, PhD; Dean Karahalios, MD and Gregory Przybylski, MD. The Doctors Company, Aesculap Inc., and NS Recruitment supported the course along with several exhibitors.

“The course covered many topics that are extremely helpful for neurosurgery residents in selecting a practice or staff position and then starting in that practice,” said Dr. Hassenbusch, who chaired the first “Beyond Residency: The Real World” course last year and participated as faculty this year. “The information provided by the panelists and speakers will prove invaluable for neurosurgery residents as they complete their residencies; I know they recognized this fact because many of them said that this was the best course they’ve ever attended.”

Catch the Next Program in October
Plans are already underway for the next “Beyond Residency: The Real World” course, which will be hosted by Donald Becker, MD, at the University of California-Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003. Information about the 2003 course and photos taken during the 2002 course can be viewed at www.neurosurgery.org/aansmeetings/epm/residency.html.

“I would encourage program chairs to consider sending their residents to this course in the future,” said Dr. Cerullo.

This is one course that residents will never forget — years from now they will reflect on the importance of this opportunity and the friendships they made that will have lasted throughout their careers.

Vanessa Garlisch is education manager in the AANS Education and Practice Management Department.