Many years ago the great Gus Sarmiento (read his excellent memoir) told me how, when he was running the Los Angeles orthopaedic residency programme, he first noticed Joel Matta. He said that whenever they had a postgraduate educational event, Matta who was apparently a fairly self effacing young surgeon, was always the guy who asked the most penetrating and apposite questions, not the usual 'in my experience' guff that you get, which is grandstanding disguised as a question. Sarmiento said that it was most unusual in a resident to have this quality consistently - Matta went on to study with Letournel in Paris and a star of pelvic and acetabular surgery was born.
There are many many pelvic fracture surgeons about now, and much of Matta's more recent published work has been about pelvic osteotomy and the anterior approach to hip replacement. If you've heard him speak then you'll know how good he is.
This is a superb piece on 'how to be good'. It may not turn you into another Joel Matta, but it's great. And yes, speed is not an end in itself, but it's not a bad thing either
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