It is not thrilling to see your patient on the surgery schedule for a procedure that none of the rest of the team physicians knows anything about. I don't team up again with internists who take the weekend off and shut off their pagers. The effect of teamwork on my practice has been positive. I feel more secure working with complicated diseases. Diabetes is only one example of a medical situation requiring an assault team.
Malignant tumors are another example.
Now I team up with a general surgeon, a pathologist and an oncologist and we assault the enemy. Another example is complicated orthopedic problems. I recently teamed up with an orthopedist to repair a failed first metatarsal base osteotomy. He harvested a piece of the ASIS and I fitted it into the defect. The two of us worked together to place internal fixation.