Internationally renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Loren Borud has written an important new book titled Plastikonomics: What I learned as a Harvard Plastic Surgeon. With over 20 years in medicine, 8 years as a Harvard Medical School faculty member in plastic surgery, and study at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Dr. Borud is among few surgeons who have the insight, experience, analytical tools, and courage to write a book about the economics of plastic surgery.
Taking the reader behind the scenes of the economic factors that drive physicians – plastic surgeons in particular – he shows readers the ins and outs of plastic surgeons’ lives, including how they work, what makes them tick, and how the field of plastic surgery is rapidly changing in response to cultural and governmental forces. Shining a light on the dark and mysterious subject of plastic surgery, Dr. Borud reveals the hidden inner truths about plastic surgeons and their patients.
He begins by discussing why an otherwise intelligent young man or women would choose to become a physician and surgeon in today’s world. He details the grueling training, which entails pre-med organic chemistry, 4 years of medical school and 6-10 more years of residency training. Dr. Borud quantifies the fiscal impact of loan debt and opportunity cost to show us why becoming a surgeon in today’s climate of malpractice litigation and decreasing reimbursements simply does not make sense, and how our current trends discourage our best and brightest from choosing medicine as opposed to business, law, or other professions.
He captures the truth – which is not always so flattering - about plastic surgery in “Plastikonomics”. Along the way, the reader will learn how it is that many doctors lack even a modicum of bedside manner; how serious medical misinformation is innocently propagated on the internet; why surgery is the “easy part” for academic surgeons; why being a “Walmart Shopper” for aesthetic surgery doesn’t pay; how medicare policy effectively tells surgeons what procedures they can and cannot do; how a bump on the head can result in an unnecessary $5,000 expense because of defensive medicine; why cosmetic surgery fees will soon decrease; why you should never find your plastic surgeon on television; and why you may be going overseas for your facelift!
Plastikonomics covers everything from the reality of government utopian healthcare plans to the “lipotourism” phenomenon to the colorful caricatures of the various “types” of aesthetic surgery patients to the plastic surgeons who treat them. In Plastikonomics, Dr. Borud leaves no stone unturned as he addresses every aspect of plastic surgery, plastic surgeons and patients with total objectivity, candor and honesty.
