[ghshephard]

I'd argue that brain surgery is even _more_ an example of where the ability to cut, suture, and otherwise tweak the brain is less than 1% of what makes you chose a particular brain surgeon to go messing around inside your noggin. I'm betting that the brand name of the Hospital, the quality of they operating environment, the Insurance Coverage, The Cost - these turn out to be even more important than the actual skill of the brain surgeon.

[psranga]

People have told me that they check up the references of the surgeon. i.e., surgeon is the most important factor.