Surgical Demand Time Variance: A Possible Explanation for Lunar Effects and Some Other Mysterious Cycles

The authors are grateful to Dr. Schonberger for his thoughtful comments with respect to our recent manuscript entitled “Observations on Surgical Demand Time Series: Detection and Resolution of Holiday Variance.”1 

Dr. Schonberger's speculations regarding the Jewish lunar calendar are astute, and we believe they may have merit. We are investigating these nontrivial cycles of surgical demand further and hope to determine a definitive answer in the near future.

*Hospital University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. strumdp@uphs.upenn.edu