We won’t drone on echoing the sentiments of the holiday season. The collection of messages piling upward in our inboxes instructing all to give thanks or take stock of what’s important has reached its proverbial limit. 2020 has been difficult. It’s been painful and harrowing. We get it, we feel it too. And we’re with you.
But today we have hope. We’re inspired by the resilience of our teams, by the focus and dedication of every single person working to keep us all safe and healthy. We’re recharged day after day by your strength and trust in us.
Across every specialty, even in a pandemic, we march forward toward medical care that is personalized and equitable. Advancing in techniques and approaches, testing, and treatments.
Without further ado, here’s what is ushering us into 2021:
- We’re much less aggressive at treating thyroid cancer and thyroid disease.
- Multiple ongoing pancreatic cancer clinical trials of immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy will hopefully bear fruit this year. And we can target the way pancreatic cancer cells use energy sources.
- Technological advancement has led to customizable hybrid surgical approaches in aortic repair.
- Post-op breast care and pain management have transformed by using what we call muin aortic repair.
- New technology in plastics brings breast reconstruction full circle, placing implants on top of the chest instead of under the muscle.
- Everyone should get a preventative colonoscopy at age 45, and there are non-invasive options available.
- Minimally-invasive approaches to cleft and craniofacial repair provide maximal benefits, making small changes over time instead of with one big procedure.
- When it comes to the heart, a marriage of cardiology and cardiac surgery is the new hybrid. Medical-surgical hybrid approaches for low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk patients.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, and continuous glucose monitors that can check sugars through an app from the comfort of home are here.
- Studies show that weight loss surgery actually gives back life expectancy in proportion to how much weight is lost.
- Technology to treat vascular disease in an outpatient setting is advancing quickly. Our team was the first in the Northeast to use a specialized laser system for arterial atherectomy from the radial approach.
- We can cure Hepatitis C with medication. Soon, liver transplants for hepatitis C may no longer be needed.
- Less is more in lung cancer treatment. Instead of removing an entire lobe of the lung, we can remove any segment with minimally invasive techniques and achieve the same cure rate while preserving lung function.
- Technology is now miniature enough to do full laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures on newborns.
From all of us at Columbia, thank you for your trust and support in such trying times. We are here for you, now more than ever.
Happy Holidays,
Your Team at Columbia Healthpoints and the Department of Surgery
Related:
- Here For You, Now More Than Ever: Lessons We've Learned from the Covid Crisis
- The Overnight Birth of a Surgical Workforce Access Team, SWAT, in the Time of COVID
- Some forms to help you organize your next visit: Preparing | Taking Notes