Opinion: Careful, compassionate, concurrent surgery

Concurrent surgery, The practice of a surgeon having two operating rooms going at the same time, has been the subject of considerable public attention after the Globe's Spotlight team released an investigative report of this practice at Massachusetts General Hospital. This is an important topic to me, because, as a head and neck cancer surgeon, I practice concurrent surgery at times. I also, in my academic job, research the operating room and how to make surgical care safer and more efficient. The surprised reaction that many people had about the existence of concurrent surgery makes sense to me — the general public does not know much about the day-to-day activity of the operating room beyond what is portrayed on television.