Variety and Experience: Learning and Forgetting in the Use of Surgical Devices
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Keywords
product variety, learning and forgetting, experience curves, productivity, healthcare
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2721
Abstract
We use a unique, hand-collected data set to examine learning and forgetting in hip replacement surgery as a function of a surgeon’s experience with specific surgical device versions and the time between their repeat uses. We also develop a generalizable method to correct for the left censoring of device-version-specific experience variables that is a common problem in highly granular experience data, using maximum simulated likelihood estimation with simulation over unobservables conditional on observables. Even for experienced surgeons, the first use of certain device versions can result in at least a 32.4% increase in surgery duration, hurting quality and productivity. Furthermore, with the passage of time, surgeons can forget knowledge gained about the use of particular devices. For certain devices, when the time gap between repeat uses increases from its median to its 75th percentile, surgery duration increases by about 3.4%. The high productivity and quality costs associated with device variety suggest that the gain from a new device design needs to be large enough to compensate for the short-term disadvantages of starting up on a new learning curve and of increasing the chances of knowledge depreciation over time.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Management Science, v. 64, issue 6, p. 2473-2972
Scholar Commons Citation
Ramdas, Kamalini; Saleh, Khaled; Stern, Steven; and Liu, Haiyan, "Variety and Experience: Learning and Forgetting in the Use of Surgical Devices" (2017). Economics Faculty Publications. 9.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/ecn_facpub/9
