@woostermd

Vascular surgeon. MD, MBA, RPVI, FSVS, FACS. Conflicted passion for complex aortic and CLI while refusing to sacrifice #comprehensivevascularcare. Salt life.

South Carolina, USA
Joined January 2019
1/ Every interventional cardiologist has been trained that radiation dose is their responsibility: fluoro time, frame rates, collimation. Nobody asks how old the machine is. We asked. Median age: 17 years. 🧵
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I dream of a day that a patient can look up the cost of their healthcare prior to even booking a visit. Not a 12 phone call insurance “estimate of benefits”. An actual price.
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A new device at @MUSChealth allows doctors to treat aortic aneurysms without surgery, providing safer options for patients like Arthur Kemp. Developed by Dr. Mathew Wooster, this invention reduces stroke risks and improves patient outcomes. Learn more: musc.co/4kTHF5p
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The future is here. #aortaed thrilled to be able to offer advanced endovascular solutions to patients without other options. #endobentall made feasible thanks to collaborative care with @DrZeigler1 @MUSCVascular @MUSCSurgery @MUSCCardFellows **patent RIMA-RCA bypass not shown**
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#aortaed. Early branches pose challenges for maintaining adequate endovascular seal. Here we demonstrate one technique for ensuring seal without having to embolize large branches by utilizing the BeBack catheter to perforate a VBX stent. **off label**
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Since the introduction of electronic health records (EHRs), US healthcare has seen zero productivity gains, while nearly every other sector has improved output per worker. Healthcare remains stagnant. Imagine a restaurant implementing software for seating, orders, and billing that cut efficiency by 50%. Picture a chef spending as much time on the computer as cooking, or waiters filling out meaningless checkboxes as often as they take orders. That software would be discarded immediately. Would any industry accept "innovations" that slash productivity? These inefficient systems were forced on physicians by corporate conglomerates, not to optimize patient care, but to maximize billing. They’re designed to capture every CPT code, comorbidity, and game the "observed-to-expected" metrics, all at the cost of physician and nurse efficiency. As a result, success in medicine is no longer about diagnostic skill, empathy, or surgical expertise—it’s about surviving the endless clicks required each day. What if "clicks per encounter" or "EHR time outside work hours" were CMS quality metrics, weighted like readmissions or patient satisfaction scores? To reverse the burnout crisis, we must demand that health systems improve EHR efficiency. Repeal meaningful use and inject competition into the EHR market. Improving the EHR will make doctors more efficient, decrease healthcare spending and improve outcomes. Lets make medicine less about clicking and more about healing. @anish_koka @EconTalker @MarilynHeineMD @LeahHoustonMD @ReasObBob @TomRomeo5 @cscla
Judy Faulkner is the billionaire founder of Epic Systems, and a recent study by Dr. Christine Sinsky reveals the following time spent on Epic per 8 hours seeing patients: • Infectious Disease 8.4 Hours • Endocrinology 7.7 Hours • Nephrology 7.5 Hours • Primary Care 7.3 Hours • Hematology 7.2 Hours This is why Epic Systems has decreased productivity and caused burnout of physicians. Much of this time spent is pajama time and not reimbursed. Physicians need to be reimbursed for all of the time spent on Epic. If we want to increase patient access to care, we need to find an alternative to Epic Systems! @EpicShares @mass_marion @ViewsProfit @DutchRojas @AaronGoodman33 @DrDiGiorgio @DrLizaMD
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Going to say it again… 1998 conversion factor for doctors - $36.68 2024 conversation factor for doctors - $33.29 1999 Insurance premiums - $6k 2024 Insurance premiums - $24k When you pay more for healthcare, it’s not coming from private, independent doctors no matter what the insurers, politicians, or news stories say. Physicians are paid less in absolute terms over the last 25 years while insurers are up 314% and inflation is up 83% We need a long term solution to ensure physicians are paid commensurate with their cost of doing business. Our country is on an unsustainable path in healthcare where all of the profits are going to insurers and hospitals, leaving physicians no choice but to vertically integrate, which drives costs even higher.
Average US family health insurance premium... 1999: $6k 2002: $8k 2005: $11k 2008: $13k 2011: $15k 2014: $17k 2017: $19k 2020: $21k 2023: $24k That's a 314% increase since 1999 (6.1% per year). (Note: US CPI inflation has increased 2.5%/year) bilello.blog/newsletter
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Excited to announce on behalf of @MUSCVascular @AdamTanious @DrZeigler1 and myself, our design for modular, transfemoral, off the shelf aortic arch repair is official US PATENT APPROVED! Hopeful to present our early series at a conference later this year #collaboration #aortaed
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Sometimes you have to move a couple of branches out of the way… #aortaed @DrZeigler1 @MUSCVascular
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Anyone found a CPT code to bill insurance companies for time spent on hold/on phone for peer to peer requests? Asking for a friend who definitely hasn’t been on hold for 30 minutes with @Humana who has taken over three weeks and counting to approve a procedure…
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Each aorta is unique. Tailoring care to individual patients by working with colleagues leads to best outcomes #withandwithoutaknife @DrZeigler1
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Another day, another #aorta treated with multidisciplinary collaborative care “team work makes the dream work”. @DrZeigler1 @MUSCVascular @MUSCSurgery @MUSChealth
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A little later news…super excited for MUSC Aortic team to have begun enrollment in the @cookvascular Zfen+ clinical trial. A great step in the right direction for #aorta care. @MUSChealth @MUSCVascular @thegreatswamy @MUSCSurgery
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Industry-physician relations are a vital part of vascular surgery, but a challenging line to walk to avoid bias. Hear ⁦@AdamTanious⁩ give his thoughts. ⁦How to others manage these relationships? ⁦ youtu.be/kksVjF0fI_w?si=vQVG…
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Interdisciplinary conference the way to go! Glad so many could make it out last night.
Great presentations at the quarterly vascular & endovascular case conference with our @MUSCVascular colleagues!
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Newly funded research opportunity at @MUSCVascular in the Ruddy Lab for a general or vascular surgery resident!!!👇👇👇 @FutureVascSurgn @APDVS_ medicine.musc.edu/department…
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Farley’s East Coffee House in Oakland, California refuses to allow a Jewish customer to use the bathroom. Antizionism = Antisemitism And this is a hate crime. #NeverAgainIsNow #EndJewHatred
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Kibbutzim are #NotATarget Music festivals are #NotATarget Holocaust survivors are #NotATarget Little Israeli girls are #NotATarget Israeli ambulances are #NotATarget Things the @UN hasn’t had the moral courage or clarity to say since the #October7Massacre
Schools are #NotATarget. Hospitals are #NotATarget. Children are #NotATarget. Civilians are #NotATarget. Humanitarians are #NotATarget.
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