Television, film, and other forms of popular culture often portray surgeons with behavioral traits that perpetuate the trope of the gruff, disruptive (but technically skilled) clinician.
As these stereotypes continue to flourish in mass media, developing a keen awareness of how patients perceive surgeons is fundamental to providing optimal care, according to Frederick G. Barker II, MD, FACS, who will deliver the Charles G. Drake History of Surgery Lecture, Pathologies of the Surgical Image in Modern American Popular Culture, at 2:30 pm today in room 104ABC.
While previous Drake Lecturers have focused on the history of surgery and pioneers in the field, Dr. Barker’s presentation will take a different approach. “It's useful to have role models who you want to be like—but that's not all there is to history. And, so, in addition to learning about great surgeons of the past and the history of how different diseases have been treated over time, there's all these other aspects to doing surgery that have been, I think, less explored,” explained Dr. Barker, referring to how the popular media’s portrayal of surgeons can skew the patient experience.
“It's remarkable that a person who has never met you before will walk into your office, and you tell them the best course of action is to cut them open—and they believe you and let you do it,” said Dr. Barker, a neurosurgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “And this is based—not on personal knowledge about you—but an idea about what a surgeon is and what they can be trusted to do; these perceptions are not always grounded in reality.”
Some patients may view surgeons as “mad scientists, brilliant but a little bit out of control, and capable of doing things that seem impossible,” said Dr. Barker, noting that back in the 1930s, Harvey Cushing, MD, FACS, who is the father of modern neurosurgery, had a “very prominent public image that overlapped with the idea of the mad scientist.”
The keystone to building a strong surgeon-patient relationship is trust. Maintaining this certitude involves a recognition of how patients may view healthcare providers based on messaging from multimedia and the personal experiences of others.
“Some of these surgeon stereotypes are not the kind of warm images that would necessarily inspire trust,” said Dr. Barker. “I think simply being conscious of this and making an effort not to conform to those perceptions is important. Do whatever is necessary for the individual in order to inspire trust. This will require a cultural sensitivity that isn’t always taken seriously by surgeons.”
Dr. Charles Drake was an adult vascular neurosurgeon from Canada who became internationally renowned for his work to advance the treatment of aneurysms in the 1960s until his retirement. The ACS Advisory Council for Neurological Surgery established the Charles G. Drake History of Surgery Lecture in 1992 to honor this leader in neurological surgery.
Following today’s lecture, the session also will be available for on-demand viewing.
