EDITORIAL: Featured papers in the September Issue

Abstract

we feature the manuscripts listed below: Catastrophic expenditures in trauma patients after the Affordable Care Act: Reduced financial risk and racial disparities. Liu and colleagues report on expenses in trauma patients. In this paper, Affordable Care Act (ACA) policies such as nonemployer based health insurance options, Medicaid expansion, and marketplace subsidies were associated with increased rates of health insurance coverage among working age Americans 1 with an editorial from Adrian Diaz, Scott M. Chaffee, and Heena P. Santry. 2 National prospective cohort study describing how financial stresses are associated with attrition from surgical residency. Dolan and colleagues explore the role financial pressures play in the vexing problem for General Surgery of an attrition rate much higher than other surgical specialties. 3 There is an editorial from Tim Nelson. 4 Examining healthcare inequities relative to United States safety net hospitals. Paredes and colleagues evaluate outcomes following three common surgical operations (colectomy, coronary artery bypass grafting, or total hip arthroplasty). 5 They demonstrate that patients undergoing operations at hospitals with the highest safety-net burden were significantly more likely to experience a post-operative complication per an editorial from Sidra Bonner and Lesly Dossett. 6 Preoperative parathyroid localization does not improve surgical outcomes for patients with primary hyperparathyroidism Fazendin and colleagues perform a retrospective review of 2057 patients undergoing parathyroidectomy for hyperparathyroidism and examined the preoperative imaging, operative approach, complication rates, and cure rates. They found that preoperative imaging did not have an effect on cure rates, recurrent hyperparathyroidism, or complication rates. 7 There is an editorial from Sophie Dream and Tracy Wang 8 Surgery clerkship offers greater entrustment of medical students with supervised procedures than other clerkships. Foote and colleagues highlight the degree to which medical students are included within different clerkships. 9 A group of medical students provide suggestions to improve clerkships. 10 Seven "My Thoughts/My Surgical Practice" Articles. We are highlighting these seven thought-provoking editorials: When excellence is still not enough, 11 The COVID trolley dilemma, 12 Surgical strategies during the COVID-19 crisis: The Salzburg concept, 13 Restructuring the surgical service during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experience from a tertiary institution in Singapore, 14 Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States-COVID-19 and history, 15 Pre-operative COVID-19 testing and decolonization, 16 and COVID-19: The road to recovery. 17