What lessons can surgeons learn from sport? The reflections of a retired athlete

Abstract

Surgery often looks to other domains of high performance such as the airline industry for ideas on how to improve surgical performance however little is written about what surgeons might learn from high performance sport. In this paper I offer some observations and ideas from my experience as an Olympic swimmer which I feel may be applicable to surgery and some thoughts on how these concepts might be introduced.

Hepatectomy and pancreatectomy: how we could do it

“…A recent ANZ Journal symposium highlighted the similarities between elite sportspeople and surgeons in the need to consistently achieve high performance no matter what the conditions or circumstances. [1][2][3][4] In sport, video analysis has become an integral part of individual and team performance improvement and is used for error correction or positive modelling. 3 However surgeons are rarely able to mentally rehearse or prepare themselves, or their operative teams, for specific operations.…”