Professor Ian Harris AM is the leader of our Injury and Rehabilitation research stream at the Institute and head of the Whitlam Orthopaedic Research Centre.

His book ‘Surgery, the Ultimate Placebo’ argues that the benefit of surgery may be lower than what you or your surgeon may think. He also argues that surgery may pose a greater risk than what you might believe.

Professor Harris shares with us how commonly performed operations such as knee arthroscopies, back fusions or cardiac stenting procedures have become such accepted practice without a deeper examination of the case for or against them.

If you were to put these practices under the microscope, you may find them to be useless or even harmful, he argues. Authored by an experienced, practising orthopaedic surgeon and medical researcher who performs many of these operations himself, the book makes for a compelling read.

The placebo effect of surgery may be very real, but whether or not it is worth the recovery time, monetary cost and physical discomfort is something you can decide for yourself by reading Professor Harris’s book.