Whether it's for procedural expertise, humanitarian reasons or medical tourism, three spine surgeons discuss countries outside the U.S. they would consider practicing in and why.
Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses.
Next week's question: What was the last big capital investment at your practice? What was your funding strategy?
Please send responses to Alan Condon at acondon@beckershealthcare.com by 5 p.m. CST Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Note: The following responses were lightly edited for style and clarity.
Question: In what other country, if any, would you consider practicing spine surgery? Why?
Todd Lanman, MD. Lanman Spinal Neurosurgery (Beverly Hills, Calif.): Australia and Germany come to mind. These two countries have extensive experience in arthroplasty, and are quite welcoming to it, as well as medical tourism. They're very friendly to international surgeons, observing and working within their systems.
Hamid Abbasi, MD. PhD. Inspired Spine (Burnsville, Minn.): Nowhere. I don't think any country in the world parallels the U.S. in our level of expertise or innovation. Not yet.
Issada Thongtrangan, MD. Microspine (Phoenix): I would like to return back to my home country, Thailand. My ultimate goal is to teach and spread knowledge to the younger generations, so they can serve the community. I would love to volunteer in an underserved area in my home country. Some other parts of the world such as Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia, etc., also interest me as there are a lot of rural regions that have no access to healthcare at all. I would love to volunteer there and use my skills to help those as much as I possibly can.