Just over 10 years ago, after 18 years of general surgery practice, I had a change of heart-an epiphany, maybe. After 18 years of passion for performing laparoscopic cholecystectomies, inguinal herniorraphies, laparoscopic Nissen's, mastectomies, splenectomies, adrenalectomies, and thyroid and parathyroidectomies, my passion changed for reasons that, I admit, are still not clear to me. All I knew was that the practice of breast surgery was becoming a bigger and bigger part of my professional life, both in my heart and in my head.
What were suddenly very interesting to me were things like:
-Hearing about Dr. Phil Israel and his young partner, Dr. Ricky Fine, creating a ''breast-surgery only'' practice in Marietta, Georgia. -A new diagnostic and therapeutic technique called ''breast ultrasound,'' with actual courses being taught by Dr. Ed Staren from Chicago, his young colleague, Dr. Ricky Fine (again), from Marietta, and some Danish radiologists, who had pioneered this technology for the breast. -Also, another new diagnostic and therapeutic technique-this time with X-rays-called ''stereotactic breast biopsy,'' which had been pioneered by a Chicago surgeon named Kambiz Dowlat and a radiologist from Colorado named Steve Parker.