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The internet is wonderful to get information but it is misinterpreted frequently.
My name is Dr. Richard Andrassy and I'm the chairman of surgery at the University
of Texas Medical School at Houston and I'm chairman of surgery at the Memorial Hermann
Hospital Medical Center.
A lot of people will do a lot of homework. Look at the internet. Not know how to interpret
it. One good thing about this is it will allow them to decide whether what they are reading
is pertinent to what's wrong with them.
I think there's certain particular things that everybody knows but forgets - not smoking,
exercising much more before you go in and try to lose some weight, decreasing all the risk of infection
before you go in.
Many people would do well to be sure that they have their medicines and their blood pressure under control,
that their blood sugar is under good control. There's a good correlation between your
blood sugar and post operative infections. And participate in their health care rather
than just expect it to happen.
I was amazed that people will spend more time researching where to buy and what kind of car to buy than
who their surgeons are and what their reputation is.
The initial visit is ... you don't have to establish a chart, you don't have to
establish billing, so you could make contact and answer some of the initial questions without
having to make a formal doctor-patient relationship.
I think many places have long wait times for specific specialties and this leads to a
lot of concerns for the patient because many times they don't know if thier illness is
really an emergency or something that can be taken care of 30 days, 60 days later.
I think having the opportunity to speak to a very knowledgeable person such as the physician
on 2nd MD. They would be able to calm their fears a bit and know that a wait of 30 or 40
days is not to change the course of their illness.