Picking Your Surgeon? Ask These Two Questions Most People Forget

If you or a loved one is facing surgery, the fear is real and often overwhelming. You’re not just dealing with the procedure itself—you’re trying to find the right person (or really, the right team) to entrust with your life or theirs. Everyone wants the best surgeon possible. I’ve never once heard a patient say, “Just give me someone average; that’ll do.”

As a neurosurgeon who’s spent decades in the operating room, I’ve seen what separates good outcomes from great ones—and what can go terribly wrong. There are plenty of factors to consider: credentials, hospital quality, bedside manner, even how comfortable you feel asking tough questions. But two questions often get overlooked, and they can make a bigger difference than you might expect.

1. “Do you always work with the same team—your assistant, nurses, anesthesiologist, and so on?”

When you’re sitting in the surgeon’s office, it’s natural to focus on the person across the desk: their training, their track record, their philosophy. But surgery isn’t a solo act. It’s very much a team sport, and the surgeon is the captain. A great captain doesn’t just have skill—they build and keep a strong, consistent crew around them.

Research backs this up powerfully. In aviation—where lives are also on the line every single day—studies from NASA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have shown how crucial team familiarity is. One analysis found that the vast majority of incidents (over three-quarters) happened on a crew’s first day working together, before they could gel through experience. Nearly half of those occurred on the very first flight as a unit.

Even more telling: fatigued pilots and crews who had a history of flying together made about half as many errors as rested but unfamiliar crews. Diane Coutu highlighted this in her Harvard Business Review piece on why teams often underperform—familiarity breeds reliability, not complacency, in high-stakes environments.

The same principle applies in the OR. A surgeon who rotates through different assistants, scrub techs, and circulating nurses every case has to re-establish rhythms, communication styles, and trust on the fly. That introduces unnecessary variables when precision matters most. A stable team knows each other’s habits, anticipates needs, and catches issues before they escalate. If the surgeon says yes to a consistent team, that’s a strong sign they’re prioritizing the full environment of care, not just their own hands.

2. “How many times per month do you perform this exact type of procedure?”

Most people remember to ask about overall experience: “How many years have you been doing this?” or “How many of these have you done in your career?” Those are solid starting points. But a much sharper question digs into recency and frequency: How often are you doing this now?

Techniques evolve. Skills can fade without regular use. A surgeon might have performed hundreds of a certain operation over their career, but if they haven’t touched one in years, rust sets in—and patients pay the price.

This isn’t theory; the data is clear. Take carotid endarterectomy (CEA), a surgery to clear plaque from the neck artery and prevent strokes. Large studies have categorized surgeons by annual volume: low (fewer than 10 cases), medium (10–29), and high (30 or more). Patients treated by low-volume surgeons were more than twice as likely to die or suffer a postoperative stroke compared to those with high-volume surgeons.

The lesson? Volume isn’t just cumulative—it’s ongoing. Frequency keeps skills sharp, keeps you current with refinements in approach, tools, and best practices. Ask for monthly numbers (or at least recent annual averages) to get a real sense of active expertise.

These two questions won’t tell you everything, but they cut through the noise. They reveal whether the surgeon thinks like a true leader: building a reliable crew and staying immersed in the work. In my experience, the ones who can answer confidently here tend to deliver the outcomes we all hope for.

Surgery is scary enough without adding avoidable risks. Arm yourself with the right questions, and you’ll be in a stronger position to choose wisely. Your life—or your loved one’s—deserves nothing less.

Want to learn about the four types of errors a doctor might make? Check out my book, The Mind Unlocked: Neurological, Nutritional and Behavioral Paths to Free Your Brain’s Potential. It’s packed with mind-bending insights from my years in the OR and the latest research. Grab it here: https://amzn.to/3utS9CG