Mick Perez-Cruet, MD, serves as professor and vice chair of the department of neurosurgery at Oakland (Calif.) University William Beaumont School of Medicine.
Dr. Perez-Cruet will serve on the panel "Best Investments for Spine Surgeons Today" and "The Next Five Years in Spine" at Becker's 19th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from June 16-18.
To learn more and register, click here.
Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?
Dr. Mick Perez-Cruet: Practice management is the most time-intensive issue. To remain afloat in today's environment of decreasing reimbursement for surgeons' services, we need to be a lean practice. We have had to reduce staff and improve our ancillary services. It is challenging for surgeons to maintain practice autonomy.
Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?
MPC: Top challenges remain physician practice autonomy, conducting clinical research and the regulatory burdens placed on physicians, particularly those physicians involved in FDA-approved IDE studies, lack of administrative and financial support to conduct clinical and basic science research, and increasing administrative demands placed on physicians that subtract from the physician-patient relationship.
Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?
MPC: Investments in practice infrastructure include purchasing our own buildings to provide space for ancillary practice services such as physical therapy, imaging (CT and MRI), and clinical practice space.
Q: What are you most excited about right now?
MPC: The advancements and developments in the fields of minimally invasive spine and cranial surgery and degenerative spine therapies. I feel these areas will continue to grow in the future as more patients are becoming educated about their benefits.