An Evidence-Based Approach to the Effectiveness of Surgery

This episode features the first of Dr. David Hanscom’s two interviews with orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Ian Harris.  Dr. Harris, the author of Surgery, The Ultimate Placebo, discusses his evidence-based approach for evaluating the effectiveness of a variety of surgeries, ranging from arthroscopic knee surgery to spine surgery to the implanting of cardiac stents.  His research shows that many types of surgery are performed on patients for whom they are not effective. Visit: https://backincontrol.com  for more information.

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Ian Harris is a practicing orthopedic surgeon and academic based in Sydney, Australia. He is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of New South Wales and Honorary Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles and achieved approximately AUD50M in grant funding. His research interests are clinical in nature and are focussed on the effectiveness of surgical interventions using randomised trials and registry and cohort studies. He has also written two popular books: "Surgery, the Ultimate Placebo" (2016) and "Hippocrasy, How Doctors Are Betraying Their Oath" (2021).