Thinking Outside the Box So Everyone Can Win.

In their summary of the 2022 Congenital Heart Surgery Practice Survey in this issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Stephens and colleagues 1 Stephens E.H. St. Louis J.D. Jaquiss R.D.B. et al. Report of the 2022 Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Practice Survey. Ann Thorac Surg. 2023; 116: 17-26 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar have provided an important update to a situation that has been discussed for decades: in North America, at least, there are too many surgeons in too many small programs. Volume-outcome relationships have been reported, discussed, and contested. Many potential solutions have been proposed and even implemented, perhaps most notably including closing low-volume sites in some places and adding a specific American Board of Thoracic Surgery Congenital Certificate process. Report of the 2022 Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Practice SurveyThe Annals of Thoracic SurgeryVol. 116Issue 1PreviewThe Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on Congenital Surgery performed a practice survey to analyze contemporary data. Full-Text PDF