Development of a Surgical Research Laboratory

Abstract

The surgeon is becoming increasingly aware of his role as a physiologist and of the part a broad biological perspective plays in improving his ability to care for his patients. To meet this need, any institution, military or civilian, charged with the responsibility for training surgeons in a residency program today must have ready access to a laboratory primarily concerned with surgical problems and under the control of the training department. Day-to-day contact with modern investigative methods (as well as techniques of certain complex modern operations) can be obtained only in such a workshop. Laboratory experience is vital to the maturing of the young surgeon, in addition to the effect it has in stimulating the more experienced ones. A surgical trainee may improve his manual dexterity and his understanding of emergency situations. The laboratory also provides an opportunity to develop the critical biological approach so necessary in a field where