This doctor is already middle-aged, and he's only just started practicing medicine.

Chapter 278 The more professional you are, the more insecure you become!
March 16th, Tuesday, the sixth day of the second lunar month, 11:30 AM!

Lu Cheng hurriedly entered the doctors' lounge and saw that Qu Daowen and Dong Liumeng were still there. He apologized, "Professor Qu, Professor Dong, I'm so sorry, our hospital's scheduling is not very scientific."

"I made you two work with me for a full 24 hours."

The emergency surgery shift schedule is as follows: after the night shift in the resuscitation room, a day shift in a ward will follow immediately.

It's not tiring, but it takes a long time to get through.

Qu Daowen joked while drinking tea, "It's you on duty, Dr. Lu, not the two of us."

Dai Linfang raised his hand: "Professor Qu, I'm just here to observe."

Then he handed over his phone: "We've ordered a la carte. Would you like to add anything else?"

"Actually, Professor Qu, I can take you and Professor Dong out to eat."

Yesterday at noon, Lu Cheng arranged for Qu Daowen and another person to receive guests outside, while dinner was hosted by the hospital leaders.

However, the two professors went straight to the emergency room after dinner and haven't returned yet.

"Let's talk about dinner later. Xiao Dong and I will go back to the dorm to rest for a bit. We're getting old, and our energy is declining. We can't stay up as long as we used to."

"We would still like to have lunch with Dr. Lu," Qu Daowen said, making the decision on behalf of Dong Liumeng.

"This is fine. There are four of us, and seven dishes would be a bit wasteful."

Dai Linfang quickly put his phone away: "If there are one or two dishes that the two professors find delicious, then these dishes are lucky enough."

"Brother Lu, would you like to order another dish?"

Lu Cheng said, "That's enough...no need!"

After saying that, Lu Cheng took out two packs of cigarettes from the lining of his white coat. He had asked the nurse to buy them for him. "Professors, I don't smoke, so I don't know what your smoking habits are."

Qu Daowen and Dong Liumeng's expressions turned somewhat awkward for a moment: "What?"

"It's just regular food, professors, please don't be so polite."

"We've already bought it," Lu Cheng said.

If Lu Cheng hadn't seen the two of them constantly swallowing their saliva in the early hours of the morning, he wouldn't have guessed that they had run out of food.

Dong Liumeng opened one package and pushed the rest to Lu Cheng: "Dr. Lu, you can keep the rest for your reception."

While unpacking the boxes, he handed them out to Qu Daowen and asked Dai Linfang, "Little Dai, continue. I'm really curious about just how much of a 'manly man' Lu Cheng is."

"We were just talking about animal models."

Dai Linfang then said, "Oh, speaking of which, I've gotten myself into trouble for this. I smashed the gifts for our team members."

"It was right after the New Year..." Dai Linfang started chatting with the two professors.

Dong Liumeng and Qu Daowen smoked two cigarettes in a row before they were barely satisfied.

After Dai Linfang finished speaking, Dong Liumeng summarized: "Dr. Lu is really prolific, from tendon suturing techniques to blood vessel and nerve suturing techniques, and then to spleen and liver suturing techniques."

"There is also the exploration and research and development of practical clinical applications."

Dong Liumeng bowed slightly and said, "Dr. Lu, I admire you!"

Even if someone who doesn't do scientific research hears Dai Linfang say these things, at most they'll think, "Oh, there's a new technique here."

But only those who do scientific research understand how difficult it was for Lu Cheng to achieve all this, and what it represents about his potential.

Lu Cheng's stay at Xiangzhou People's Hospital is a complete waste of his potential.

Lu Cheng replied, "Thank you for the praise, Professor Dong. It's all thanks to the guidance of our teachers and the close cooperation among our team members that we have achieved these initial results."

“Scientific research is scientific research, and clinical practice is clinical practice; they cannot be generalized. Speaking of which, Professor Dong, what you talked about last night, the laparoscopic spleen-preserving surgery, is something I am quite interested in.”

“My previous workplace was a county hospital, but no one dared to perform splenectomy laparoscopically, and the emergency department hadn’t even introduced this equipment!”

Is spleen removal surgery difficult?
It's neither difficult nor difficult.

Those who dare to perform laparoscopic splenectomy after splenic rupture must possess considerable skill and expertise.

At the Provincial People's Hospital, there are many doctors who can perform laparoscopic splenectomy; it's considered standard for ordinary doctors. However, this standard is not applicable to all places.

As Dai Linfang said, in the information age, even laymen can come into contact with many doctors, but for a person to become even the most ordinary doctor, it takes many years of training and experience.

Taking shortcuts in scientific research can only allow you to surpass others in a single skill and achieve a significant advantage over others, but it won't make you instantly rise above everyone else.

No one can escape the basic skills they've fallen behind in.

This is medicine, this is clinical practice, and this is why anyone who tries to teach medicine will be struck by lightning.

No matter how good you are at scientific research, you still need to learn the essential skills, techniques, and theoretical foundations...

Dong Liumeng looked at Dai Linfang: "Didn't Xiao Dai explain this to you, Dr. Lu?"

Dai Linfang shook his head and chuckled: "Professor Dong, the types of diseases my teacher deals with are basically not suitable for tools like laparoscopy."

Dong Liumeng suddenly realized: "That's right, for the types of diseases that your professors at Xiangya Hospital are working on, there aren't many people who dare to use laparoscopy, are there?"

While laparoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure, it also increases the difficulty of the operation.

Treating a disease is difficult enough as it is, but to make it even more difficult is just asking for trouble.

It's not that minimally invasive surgery is the best and is widely used in top hospitals. On the contrary, many top teaching hospitals, in order to explore the treatment of new diseases and perform surgeries for difficult and complicated cases, will actually set aside the word "minimally invasive".

Lu Cheng's questions about his cognitive and operational deficiencies made Professors Dong Liumeng and Qu Daowen feel more involved, thus making them more proactive in popularizing and explaining science.

Dai Linfang and Lu Cheng told the two professors about the work their research group was doing, while the professors explained minimally invasive clinical procedures to Lu Cheng and his two younger siblings.

The lunch turned out to be quite pleasant, with everyone having a good chat.

……

After the two professors went to rest, Dai Linfang tidied up the table and then took out his notebook to start writing and drawing some things.

Lu Cheng curiously stood on tiptoe to look over: "Brother Dai, what are you doing?"

Dai Linfang replied: "It's about recording the perspectives and aspirations of different hospital levels."

Lu Cheng's heart tightened instantly, and he asked frankly, "Can you tell me?"

Dai Linfang said, "Let me finish writing it down. Actually, it's not comprehensive."

Lu Cheng realized he had been too hasty: "Then I'll go out and check the rooms again."

After listening, Dai Linfang coughed twice, also finding Lu Cheng quite perplexing.

Half an hour later, Lu Cheng returned with 0.8 skill points, and Dai Linfang finally finished organizing, tapping the table with the index and middle fingers of his right hand.

Before Lu Cheng could speak, Dai Linfang said, "Brother Lu, I won't brag to you about what Xiangya Hospital and our team are doing. Whether it's right or wrong is up to others."

"But today, I realize for the first time that provincial-level tertiary hospitals like the Provincial People's Hospital are not the focus of the top tertiary hospitals in the country." "They are pursuing 'minimally invasive' and 'micro-changes' in the treatment of single diseases, and are working in the field of specific and minor improvements."

Lu Cheng understood Dai Linfang's words: "Well, for example, minimally invasive splenectomy under laparoscopic intervention."

Minimally invasive splenectomy essentially reduces the inherent trauma of splenectomy surgery and does not improve the overall quality of splenectomy surgery.

If we were to rate the overall surgery, it would mean raising the score from 6 to 6.5 or 7.

The improvement in overall splenectomy scores for spleen-preserving surgery is a leap to 9.5/9.8!

Do what you are capable of.

"We meticulously refine our surgical procedures, continuously optimize them, alleviate patients' suffering, improve their perioperative and postoperative quality of life, and demonstrate greater humanistic care."

"It's not easy either!"

Dai Linfang sighed, "Actually, these two professors are intelligent people and teachers with passion."

Lu Cheng never doubted this point; those who could enter the medical industry and persevere were all driven by passion.

A provincial-level top-tier hospital cannot directly focus on the most advanced breakthroughs in its professional field, nor does it dare to claim that it will be the first to promote the treatment of a certain disease.

But they still need to do scientific research. What can they do? They focus on meticulous work, medical services, surgical improvements, and micro-deformations in surgery!

For example, if Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital is the pioneer of limb replantation surgery, then many top hospitals in the province, including the Hand Surgery Department of the Provincial People's Hospital, are the optimizers of micro-operation techniques for limb replantation surgery!
"So what do you think our state hospital will be thinking about?" Lu Cheng asked.

Dai Linfang's perspective and analysis are truly quite novel.

"It's actually similar to the Provincial People's Hospital, but the pace will be much slower."

"After all, the location is remote, and the talent pool and the scope of talent contact are completely different. For example, the trauma center was established in the first tier at the Provincial People's Hospital ten years ago, while Xiangzhou was nearly ten years later."

Dai Linfang continued, "I'm learning!"

"The spleen-preserving technique has actually been proposed for many years. Xiangya Hospital and Xiangya No. 2 Hospital are both doing it, and the general surgery departments of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital and Shashi No. 1 Hospital are also working on it."

"However, there is still a certain lag in the process at Xiangzhou People's Hospital."

"The main reason is that the general surgery department has already spent a lot of time and resources on treating tumors, so they can't spare any time or resources for spleen trauma."

"Not all liver cancer and gallbladder cancer patients have the ability and financial foundation to travel to Shashi. Most people would choose to go to a better hospital. But we cannot ignore these patients who do not have the ability or who are willing to save money."

Dai Linfang mentioned Lu Cheng's different perspective; he had previously worked in the oncology department.

Every experience and understanding is not entirely useless!

Dai Linfang continued, "As for the environment and atmosphere in the county hospital, Brother Lu, you know it much better than I do, so I don't need to say more."

"Why are you recording all this?" Lu Cheng realized that he was always lacking something when he was in front of Dai Linfang.

It has nothing to do with technology or scientific research, but everything to do with vision and perspective.

"I'll just write this down for now, just in case it comes in handy someday," Dai Linfang said, putting away his notebook.

"Brother Lu, although we have a good relationship, the notebook is a personal privacy, and I will not let you see it."

"I will post any notes that I can show you in the group."

Lu Cheng smiled: "Who takes notes if they're a decent person?"

Dai Linfang joked, "Brother Lu, have you finally accepted that I'm a decent person and a normal person?"

Lu Cheng: "..."

Dai Linfang was actually a man who didn't discriminate between meat and vegetables; his methods for causing trouble were direct yet insidious.

……

"Xiao Dong, what do you think of Lu Cheng?" Qu Daowen and Dong Liumeng walked back to their dormitory.

"You can spread rumors, but you can't lie about your skills."

Dong Liumeng closed his eyes: "Though it is unbelievable, it is undeniable."

"Professor Qu, do such geniuses really exist in this world?"

Qu Daowen chuckled: "I haven't looked into it in depth, but in our opinion, those people at Xiangya Hospital and Peking Union Medical College Hospital are geniuses."

"On the contrary, compared to superficial things like researching and creating techniques, what I can see is Lu Cheng's solid basic skills."

"This person has the potential to become a surgeon."

In the era when Qu Daowen worked, scientific research was not emphasized; everyone's focus was on technology and surgery.

He was among the group of people who were forced to switch to scientific research and went quite far. He managed to benefit from the transition, but he also recognized the 'cruelty of the times'.

In the field of surgery, Qu Daowen does not agree that the gap between his skills and those of professors at Kyoto Kyoto Hospital or Xiangya Hospital is so large that it is completely unbelievable.

However, in the field of scientific research, Qu Daowen could only catch up to the point of feeling powerless!
After a moment of hesitation, Dong Liumeng said, "Professor Qu, I also feel that I'm getting old."

Qu Daowen smiled and said, "Everyone gets old."

"Anyway, whether it's technology or scientific research, I'm not at the forefront of the times. I've seen many younger generations rise to prominence, so I'm used to it."

This is a matter of mindset.

Dong Liumeng is quite outstanding. Among his peers, he can barely keep up with the "first tier" in terms of professional skills. Therefore, when it comes to simple operation and surgical techniques, without involving "theory" and concept transformation, Dong Liumeng does not feel that he is much worse than the associate professors in Xiangya Hospital.

Dong Liumeng chuckled twice, then suddenly broke down: "Professor Qu, do you think this trip can still be considered a relaxation trip?"

Having been invited to set up a trauma center in a prefecture-level city hospital, they should have been in a state of 'rest and recuperation'.

But on his second day there, Dong Liumeng realized he was really unlucky to have run into someone like Lu Cheng.

Dong Liumeng hardly noticed any unique advantage he had when standing with Lu Cheng, except for his age.

"It depends on how you look at it. If you relax your mindset and cultivate your character, you'll be more content if you don't think about comparing or suppressing others."

“After all, you will have to invest and spend much less time!” Qu Daowen said.

Dong Liumeng turned his head, his tone tightening: "Free food and drink?"

Doing less work, getting paid more, and eating more food—isn't that just freeloading?
Qu Daowen took a deep breath: "Perhaps it's even more exaggerated than you described."

"With such a profound foundation in basic surgical skills, I don't believe that Lu Cheng only knows these current surgical techniques."

“He has quite a few resources gathered around him.”

Dong Liumeng lowered his head. At that moment, he thought of himself back then, the Dong Liumeng of yesteryear.

However, both Dong Liumeng and Lu Cheng now feel quite emotional when facing each other.

Is Lu Cheng being compared to Dong Liu Meng from back then?
Dong Liumeng has an inferiority complex; the only thing he can be proud of is his doctoral degree from back then…

(End of this chapter)