The media, AANS members, third-party payers, other medical associations, Congress, referring physicians and the general public have all inquired about statistics on neurosurgery. How many brain tumor procedures do AANS members perform every year? How many AANS members are in group versus academic or solo practice? What is the percentage of spine procedures performed in comparison to other neurosurgical procedures?
These questions now can all be answered with the AANS Neurosurgical Procedural Statistics report, which highlights procedures performed by AANS members throughout 1999. The report, the first-ever of its kind, was produced by the AANS Public Relations Committee and AANS Communications Department.
The results of the survey may come as a surprise to some AANS members. The top reported surgery performed in 1999 was spine (527,610), followed by cranial (191,991), CSF shunting (38,167), peripheral nerve (33,924), pain-functional (14,589) and extracranial cerebrovascular (8,362).
“These statistics are critical to the AANS in furthering public outreach efforts,” said Ronald Warnick, MD, Chair of the AANS Public Relations Committee. “The statistics within this report support our message to the public that neurosurgery is not just brain surgery. It is also low back pain, Parkinson’s disease, neck pain, epilepsy, stroke, carpal tunnel syndrome and others.”
Another highlight of the report is the finding of a slight upswing in the number of surgeries performed. Forty percent of all respondents reported that they performed more surgeries in 1999 than the previous year, 24 percent reported a decrease in surgical procedures and 37 percent reported that the number of surgical procedures remained the same.
The four-page survey was distributed in June 2000 to a random sampling of more than 1,500 active AANS members in solo, group and academic practices. The survey asked members to identify procedures based on CPT codes. More than 400 AANS members responded to the survey.
The results were extrapolated to the entire AANS membership. The results were then compared to external benchmarks in the Health Care Financing Administration database and the Dartmouth Musculoskeletal Atlas. The survey results were consistent with those external benchmarks.
The results reflect the number of procedures performed by AANS members. It does not represent the total number of operations or cases performed by all neurosurgeons.
AANS Public Relations Committee Members dedicating their time to this project included Bruce Kaufman, MD, Robert Harbaugh, MD, and Dr. Warnick.
The AANS began publicizing the results of the report in the spring. The statistics also will be used in AANS promotional materials and AANS press releases. In addition, members of the 50-person AANS National Spokespersons Network received a copy of the report. The report is posted at www.aans.org.
Mat Press Releases A Success
Four camera-ready mat releases or newspaper articles were written and produced by the AANS Public Relations Committee and AANS Communications Department last fall. As of May 2001, these articles were printed in more than 150 daily and weekly newspapers, reaching a combined circulation audience of more than 2 million people nationwide.
The articles were designed to further educate the public about the broad scope of neurosurgery. The four topics were sports-related head injuries, low back pain, stroke and Parkinson’s disease.
AANS members helping on this initiative were Howard Weiner, MD, Ghassan Bejjani, MD, Peter Le Roux, MD, and Dr. Warnick.
The articles will continue to run in newspapers across the country. To view the mat releases, visit www.neurosurgery.org.
Journal of Neurosurgery Articles Publicized
The AANS Public Relations Committee and Communications Department have initiated a project to further educate the public about neurosurgery while highlighting new and innovative neurosurgical procedures.
On a regular basis, the Public Relations Committee identifies articles in the Journal of Neurosurgery and Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine that are of public interest. A press release is drafted based on a chosen study and at least one author of the study (typically an AANS member) is interviewed. The release is then distributed to reporters nationwide.
Each press release has been successful in garnering media interest. A press release on “Catheter Manipulation Within the Brain” received exceptional media coverage including an interview by Sean Grady, MD, on the show, “The Doctor is In,” for eYada.com and calls from Medtech Insight, HealthScout, Clinica World Medical Device and Diagnostic News and Biophotonics International magazine.
A press release on “Neurosurgeons Find Strong Association Between Cigarette Smoking and Aneurysm Rupture” received interest from the New York Times and Neurology Reviews.