My office is located at the corner of Desplaines and Fulton, here in the West Loop in Chicago,
essentially downtown. And, at this time of year, it’s fairly busy.

It’s a fairly busy cross street with a lot of car traffic, as well as pedestrian foot traffic. At this time of year, namely summer, there’s also a good amount of cyclists and, nowadays, people using the rental electric scooters.

When you look at people zipping around on the rental scooters, you can’t help but wonder how do we as humans really think about risk when it comes to the decisions that we make.

Is it the wisest idea to get on an electric rental scooter, without a helmet, zipping around at around 10 miles per hour, with your cellphone in hand, texting?

Is it the best decision, from a risk and benefit kind of consideration?

Without getting into details for that, I feel like we have that same issue when it comes to medicine. For sure when it comes to musculoskeletal care.

Do people really think about some of the risks that they take with some of the treatments that they pursue?

What’s an acceptable risk for people?

Is a zero point five to one percent risk of cardiovascular mortality within a month after treatment, is that okay?

Is a risk of infection? What risk of infection is okay?

Part of the goal of regenerative medicine for musculoskeletal conditions, as well as interventional orthopedics, namely utilizing image-guided treatments rather than open surgical procedures, is to reduce the risk and get a similar result, in terms of efficacy.

Because, really, if you’re not thinking about what are the risks of getting on an electric scooter without a helmet and texting while you’re riding along, maybe that’s not the right thing to do.

Maybe there’s a better, safer, equally effective way to get where you need to go.

I think that’s what regenerative medicine is, at least in my mind.