Surgical challenges in the twenty-first century
Ihse I
To know where we are going, it is important to understand where we have been. Remarkable advances took place in health care delivery during the last part of the twentieth century profoundly changing the practice of surgery. Such advances include the development of imaging techniques, minimal access operations, endoscopy, catheter-based therapies, laser, information technology, and computer-based surgery. The coalescence of these innovations with unique achievements in molecular biology, molecular genetics, and pharmacogenetics will pave the way for further improvement of the standard of surgical care and stimulate future surgeon-scientists to keep surgery at the pole position. The old days were good, but they are gone. Now we must rise to meet numerous challenges ahead as our world is develo­ping not only in science and surgical technology but also in demography, health care structures, economy, communication and the public’s overall knowledge, expectations and demands. Some of these challenges will be discussed in more detail in this paper.