Cheerleading and game plans

For starters, there are wins in all. In football, scoring a touchdown requires players to have tenacity, perseverance, concentration, and the willingness to forge ahead despite the human obstacles in their way. Similarly, to help patients achieve treatment success, clinicians use their earned wisdom and a sense of determination to overcome various treatment obstacles, including complicated diagnoses and insurance hassles.

Both football players and obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) require good game plans, but they also need to communicate with their teammates about that plan—especially when unexpected adverse effects surface. Hindi Stohl, MD, JD, and Jim M. Shwayder, MD, JD, share the story of a patient who faced such a situation and how an ob-gyn failed to properly communicate with their team and patient about possible procedure complications. Similarly, both clinicians and football players need to engage in good defensive mechanisms to win. In obstetrics and gynecology, that might mean introducing a new training program to help better prepare gynecologic surgeons for minimally invasive procedures, as Nash Moawad, MD, MS, FACOG, FACS, details in an exclusive Q&A. And let’s not forget the importance of cheering. In this issue’s editorial, Deputy Editor Jon I. Einarsson, MD, PhD, MPH, looks at fundraising for medical start-ups, as cheering on and supporting these early-stage enterprises is an important path to potential treatment success.

Here at Contemporary OB/GYN® we continue to cheer you, our reader, by providing you with the tools, tips, and information from cover to cover to make your game plans successful.

Mike Hennessy Jr

President and CEO, MJH Life Sciences®