Every Tuesday. Five minutes. Evidence over ego.

The Form & Function Brief is a free weekly newsletter from a 27-year orthopaedic hand surgeon. Three columns. No sponsors. No filler. Just the clinical judgment I use every day in the operating room — delivered to your inbox before you need it.

No Big Deal or Red Flag

Every issue starts with one symptom and a straight answer. Should you see a doctor or not? Thumb base pain, a jammed finger, wrist numbness after a fall, a fingertip that won't straighten — these are the questions patients ask me every day. I answer them the way I would if you were sitting across from me in the exam room, not the way a liability disclaimer would.

Clinical Depth

One condition, explained properly. Not a Wikipedia summary — the anatomy, the mechanism, the treatment hierarchy, and the reasoning behind it. Why cortisone works for De Quervain's but accelerates damage in tennis elbow. What cubital tunnel syndrome looks like before it becomes permanent. How carpal tunnel is diagnosed by history before a single test is ordered. The depth your surgeon would give you if they had more than eight minutes.

Safety Officer Ben

My family calls me Safety Officer Ben. After nearly three decades operating on injuries that were preventable, I stopped seeing gear choices as personal preferences and started seeing them as clinical decisions made outside the hospital. This column covers the framework I use — for expedition fishing in Alaska, offshore on the Atlantic, and everywhere in between. Footwear as a medical decision. Cold water physiology. The layering system that isn't about warmth, it's about how the body actually manages heat. Evidence over ego applies here the same way it does in the clinic.