Dr. Jerry Blaivas, M. D.

I believe that to be a good doctor (or to be really good at anything), you have to have a passion for what you do. I have that passion.

But passion is not enough. You need to be educated, you need to be logical and, most importantly, you need to be able to put the needs and desires of the patient into perspective with what is best for his or her health. And, of course, for a surgeon like me, you need to possess the skills of your trade. Back to that later.

Many doctors practice medicine according to algorithms. Professional organizations, insurance companies and government think that is the best way to practice medicine. I do not. An algorithm is set of instructions for diagnosing and treating symptoms and diseases. It more or less says that 'if you see this, do that.' Algorithms are fine for non-experts, but for experts the algorithm is only a starting point. The problem with algorithms is that they are based on statistics and, when your doctor treats you according to an algorithm, he is 'playing the odds' with you.

One of our daughters, at age 12, experienced a severe headache that lasted over 36 hours. It would not go away. We were worried and took her to the doctor who told us that it was probably nothing serious and that we should take her home and let him know if she seemed lethargic or unresponsive. We asked what he was concerned about and he said it could be a blood clot or something, but he was pretty sure it wasn't. A blood clot would require emergency surgery! Try waking up your preteen daughter at 2 AM to decide if she is lethargic. We more or less insisted on an MRI of the brain which was done as an emergency and it was negative. She is fine now and we had to pay some extra money because the insurance company said it wasn't necessary. You may or may not want to do that MRI if it's you or your daughter, but I believe with all my heart that the choice should be yours. If you are treated according to an algorithm, you never get that choice. And remember, some 12 year olds will have a blood clot and might die without early diagnosis and treatment.

So if you are my patient and you urinate blood, I might recommend that I look in your bladder right then and there to find out the cause. Not to (maybe) schedule it later (as the algorithm recommends), but now. You will be given the odds and if you want to wait or not do it at all, that's your choice, but at least you will be informed and it will be your decision.

Now, what about surgical skills? They are essential for a urologic surgeon and his patients. But there is a catch. Nowdays, fueled by an explosion of new technology and innovation, there are innumerable new operations for just about everything in urology. There is great pressure on doctors to learn the newest and latest procedures, but that is not always best and, in many instances, much harm befalls patients. Each new operation comes with new complications, failures and 'learning curves'. Newest usually isn't best, but sometimes it is. So, I consider it my job to learn about everything new (I'm considered by many to be a pioneer of new procedures) and pick out only what I think is best for my patients. In practice, that means I reject most new technologies.

So, for me, urology is a passion. I'm passionate about offering you the best possible care based not only on my judgment, but your own informed preferences.

You may download Dr. Blaivas' CV here.

To read about Dr. Blaivas' experience Read this

Read Dr. Blaivas' Blog about all things Urodynamics here