Credentialing physicians for new technology: the physician's learning curve must not harm the patient.

Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (L.C.) offers advantages that are realized only when patient safety is assured. In November 1990, The Department of Surgery at The New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens initiated a program to introduce this new technology to surgeons who had not performed the operation previously. A preceptorship program was initiated, accompanied by contemporaneous quality assurance review. This is the experience of 15 general surgeons who performed their first 400 L.C.s from November 1990 through March 1993. There were no deaths and only one common bile duct injury (0.25%).