Patient outcomes are at the heart of any health system, hospital or individual physician's mission.
For David Weintritt, MD, a breast surgeon at Alexandria-based-Virginia Cancer Specialists, achieving the best outcome possible for patients means challenging previously accepted ideas of what the best outcome is in a given scenario.
Dr. Weintritt and his surgical partner, Alex Mesbahi, MD, a plastic surgeon in McLean, Va., have worked side by side during mastectomies to identify functional nerves and provide pathways for them to regenerate, giving patients the best possible chance of regaining sensation in the breast after the procedure.
The loss of sensation in the breast after a mastectomy has for years been accepted as a common side effect of the procedure, but Dr. Weintritt said it actually represents a "very important component of quality of life."
"[It's] something that could easily be dismissed by individuals who wanted to just say, 'Well, that's kind of just the way it always has been and always will be. We're doing the best we can,'" he said. "And then we looked in the mirror and realized if it was one of our significant others or family members who was about to undergo a life-changing surgery, we'd love for every component of that operation related to their safety and sense of wellness or wholeness to be involved."
Dr. Mesbahi, coming from plastic surgery, had more experience with the techniques involved with this sort of reconstructive surgery, thus sparking the collaboration between him and Dr. Weintritt.
"It was something that we were both mutually interested in and in our roles, had the authority and autonomy to go and learn a technique, knowing that we could successfully develop this in a partnership," Dr. Weintritt said.
He credits the success of their collaboration and development of these techniques within oncoplastic surgery to the genuine like-mindedness of their partnership. The pair are both physician leaders in their respective fields: Dr. Weintritt is the founder of the National Breast Center and Foundation and Dr. Mesbahi is a co-founder of the National Center for Plastic Surgery.
"Dr. Mesbahi and I are constantly in the mode of: Let's flex the skills that we have and the muscles that we have physically and intellectually, and let's search far and wide to find ways to continue to get better," Dr. Weintritt said.
This ability to explore their capabilities as surgeons has also been made possible by the sense of autonomy they have in their respective roles, Dr. Weintritt said. Being able to ask questions and have a sense that one's voice is being heard are vital aspects of the practice environment, he said, and something young physicians should carefully consider when entering the field.
"A bad culture … just eventually falls apart. I really preach to young individuals going into the field to pay very careful attention and ask as many questions as they can about overall satisfaction," he said. "We've seen, through our surgery center, my current practice and foundation, all the amazing things that can happen with very little when everyone is aligned. But the moment everybody's not aligned — when the individuals who ultimately carry the weight of responsibility don't have authority to create the teams that they feel like they need to carry out the mission — bad things happen and no one's happy."