Dr. Vince Leone explains how doctors should help patients decide on spine surgery by asking what matters most to them: playing with grandchildren, golfing, time with family. The choice comes down to money (typically $4,000–$5,000) versus regaining the activities their condition has taken away.
What does life look like in 1 year if you don't do anything? And so what you kind of see is I'm just asking questions. It's the Socratic method. It's not really your job, in my opinion, to convince them to take care. What your job is really is to diagnose and recommend treatment. That's really your core job. What does life look like in a year? You know, you told me, uh, on your day 1 That your hope was to be able to play with your grandkids. So do you think in a year you'll be able to play with your grandkids? Do you want to lose a year being able to play with your grandkids? I mean, there's— I mean, I'm not trying to get morbid here, but we only have so much time on this planet. I mean, how much more time do you want to waste? Is $4,000 or $5,000, you know, worth sacrificing? The time with your grandkids or the time on the golf course or the time with your spouse. It really all comes down— typically, if people have the money, it's an exchange of value and they're weighing it against something else. But if you don't bring that up in terms of what they're going to sacrifice to keep the money, that's what it comes down to. You're going to sacrifice money or you're going to sacrifice the thing that you care about. That's the decision. So, you have to ask them. What do you care more about? Do you care more about keeping the money in your bank account, or do you care about sacrificing this thing that this condition has taken away from you?
