In an address to the 2009 Combined Otolaryngological Spring Meetings in Las Vegas, neurosurgeon Harry Van Loveren, MD, chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of South Florida, coined the term “fogeyphobia” to describe a tendency among older doctors to become reluctant to speak out against new surgical tools and techniques, out of fear of being viewed as old-fashioned.
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September 2010So does the phenomenon extend to otolaryngology?
“The problem is that all that is new is not necessarily good,” said Paul Levine, MD, Robert W. Cantrell Professor and chair of otolaryngology at the University of Virginia Health System. “There are questions about the proper handling of newer techniques, so that patients are made fully aware if they haven’t been totally proven. Also, very heavy advertising for newer techniques is focused toward the consumer, and that probably makes some of the senior surgeons uncomfortable.”