Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 70 HOW DO YOU EVALUATE AND COMMUNICATE OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO YOUR PATIENTS? DR. SCHEER: I love when patients come to their visit with ques- tions written down. is facilitates me making sure no question is forgotten or left unaddressed. I perform surgery every day. is is my job and I am good at it. To a patient this is a new scary experi- ence that they often have no personal experience with or have only heard things "through the grapevine." A large part of my job and my responsibility is education to the patient. DR. LEGRAND: Treatment options are always conveyed verbally by the physician and are often reinforced with media such as written materials and web links. e focus is providing the patient with the best evidence to support treatment options and explaining them in a fashion that patients understand so that ultimately the patient is empowered to determine the direction of their care. WHAT DOES YOUR PRACTICE DO TO STAY CURRENT WITH MEDICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN ORTHOPEDICS? DR. LEGRAND: e field of orthopedics has exploded over that last generation, with hundreds of peer-reviewed journals and thousands of educational meetings each year. It has become impossible for any one individual to stay on the cutting edge of the entire field as new advances are made. e subspecialty focus at BOSM allows individual surgeons to stay current within their area of expertise. e collegial atmosphere that the surgeons enjoy and embrace also serves to encourage sharing of new evidence and new techniques. DR. SCHEER: At Ortho Montana all of our physicians are sub- specialized. is means that we all did the basic medical and ortho- pedic training. We then went on to do an additional year of specific training, which in my case is total knee and total hip arthroplasty. Ortho Montana physicians do not dabble across the orthopedics spectrum. What that means to patients is that we all do our specific procedures very well, rather than do multiple procedures with an average skill set. Additionally we all strive to keep up to date with in our individual sub-speciality. is is accomplished through at- tending and teaching at multiple meetings throughout the year. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "TREATING PATIENTS APPROPRIATELY FOR THEIR PHYSIOLOGIC AGE RATHER THAN CHRONOLOGICAL IS THE NORM AT BRIDGER ORHOPEDIC." DR. LEGRAND

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