Newswise — Airline pilots face a mandatory retirement age of 65. Their counterparts in the control tower have to hang it up at 56. FBI agents must retire by age 57.
Physicians and, more specifically, surgeons (along with U.S. Supreme Court justices and the pope) don’t currently face a mandatory retirement age.
Older surgeons are some of the most highly regarded members of society. They are respected by their peers as mentors and teachers, and they are loved and appreciated by longtime patients. But just like everyone else, as older surgeons continue to age, they begin to suffer from subtle cognitive and physical changes. These changes affect their ability to perform, and can lead to harm or even death for patients undergoing surgery.
The Aging Surgeon Program at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Maryland is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, objective and unbiased evaluation of physical and cognitive function for older surgeons.* It was designed to identify potentially treatable or reversible disorders that, if properly treated, could restore or improve functional capacity. Results of the program would protect surgeons from arbitrary decisions based on their chronologic age, protect patients from unsafe surgeons, and ameliorate hospitals' liability risk.
The founder of the program is Mark R. Katlic, M.D., MMM, FACS.
He established it as a pioneering resource for hospitals and health systems throughout the country to fulfill their ethical and professional duty to police their surgical staffs on this critical and burgeoning issue.
It must be noted noted that each surgeon's abilities should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Many surgeons continue to operate successfully and make positive contributions to medicine well into their 70s and beyond.
*Videos of the testing are available
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