Just tonight I received an email from Alan Sherman (CEO and Co-Founder of PRESENT) in which he asked me if I had seen the new Apple iPhone. This ingenious new piece of technology was just announced and demonstrated by Steve Jobs in San Francisco. If you haven’t already seen it yourself, and seen it demonstated, you need to take a look at just what Apple has been able to do in applying their unique design skills to the everyday tool of a cell phone…it’s quite impressive to say the least.

You can see it at:    http://www.apple.com

Job's keynote intro at Macworld is worth seeing...he demos the phone in Apple style:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/

I mention this random thought about iPhone, because it serves as the perfect introduction to my topic tonight: THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. Whether it is the instruments you use in the operating room, or the way you remove a toenail…there is probably a better way to go about it. I would like tonight’s message to serve as a challenge to each of you. Step out of the accepted and the routine, and look at everything you do in practice differently. You will quickly find yourself criticizing the very basic way in which you approach many problems in your practice. You may also find yourself striving for better and more efficient ways of delivering care to your patients.

Often times, I think new practitioners in our profession feel that since people have been doing something for so long, there is no room for improvement. I completely disagree with this approach. We should constantly be trying to re-invent our profession through better instrumentation, procedures, techniques, practice types, etc.

If Apple can do it with the cell phone, then perhaps you could help us finally come up with a reliable cure for something as simple as a plantar wart…!

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John Steinberg, DPM
Editor - PRESENT