Ageism in the operating room.

Systematic prejudice or quality assurance? This editorial explains how inevitable age-related declines coupled with a lack of self-awareness can be a recipe for disaster among ageing surgeons. But any mandatory retirement based on chronologic age would almost certainly forfeit invaluable wisdom and experience among individuals still in their prime. They argue the answer may, instead, lie in triggered objective evaluations of “functional” age. | Katlic, JAMA 2019