The doctor–surgeon relationship can be tense. As gastroenterologists, we often want to exhaust every medical option before we call in a surgical consultation. Surgeons, on the other hand, tend to want to perform surgery sooner rather than later, before the patient’s condition deteriorates and risks surgical complications.
Sometimes this battle of egos causes us to forget the real reason we do what we do—to care for the patient. And it’s not so much the battle of our egos collectively but a struggle with our own.