Hot Topics in Orthopaedics: Excellence, Kindness, Humility, and Metacarpal Fractures.

Marc Swiontkowski

MD, FAOA

Professor, University of Minnesota

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Mohit Bhandari

FRCSC, PhD

Distinguished University Professor, Chair of Surgery, McMaster University

This episode blends personal reflection with evidence discussion, opening with travel woes, winter storms, and the annual OE survey on habits for professional growth. Kindness emerged as the dominant attribute clinicians hope to cultivate, prompting a broader conversation about presence, connection, and living deliberately rather than deferring fulfillment to retirement. The discussion shifts to a small but meaningful RCT on metacarpal shaft fractures, highlighting comparable functional outcomes between surgical and non-surgical care despite radiographic differences, alongside substantially higher costs and sick leave in the operative group. Both hosts emphasize the need for larger multicenter trials in hand surgery, an area with limited high-quality data. They close with humor on mindfulness, cold-water therapy, and the challenge of maintaining balance amid demanding clinical lives.