Millions of Americans believe in the practice. Government reformers believe in it. Doctors too. Heck, even I, an accused therapeutic nihilist, tracked down a poor soul who agreed to be my primary care doctor. Call it old-fashioned, but I wanted my own doc, and I wanted yearly “checkups.†No procedure—not even AF ablation–is as good […]
Category: Doctoring
I’ve said it before here many times over. In achieving quality of medical care, information and transparency are fundamental. Knowledge empowers patients to share in their medical decisions. Doctors have always been teachers, but with the explosion of medical treatment options, this role has never been more important. Currently, in most of the real world, […]
On the surface, both WSJ articles painted a gloomy and depressing picture of US healthcare, now and beyond. That wasn’t my take. I felt a rush of optimism. Let me explain. In, ObamaCare’s Lost Tribe: Doctors, deputy WSJ editor Daniel Henninger wrote about the (forgotten) plight of doctors in the Affordable Care Act. He critiqued […]
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How much Medicine is enough?
I’m going to tell you a secret about my office practice. (Yes, procedural-based doctors spend long hard days toiling in the office.) On office days, I often play a little game with my imaginary friend. He challenges me to leave the prescription pad in the drawer for the entire day. The idea being that patients […]
The thing is: I am a real fan of ICDs. I could fill this blog with ‘good’ ICD stories. These would be vignettes that describe real people who have gained beautiful years of life because of an automatically delivered shock from a device that a former paper boy implanted. Like all things therapeutic, there are […]
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I am still here…
If you weren’t a doctor; you couldn’t be a doctor-blogger. That’s obvious–and obviousness is one of my themes. The trouble about being a doctor-blogger is that doctoring doesn’t always happen on a schedule. Neither does perfect health. Remember, we doctors aren’t cyborgs; we get fevers and stuff too. Wait, I always say that. Never repeat […]
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Are young doctors afraid of this…
Last night at dinner, I had the chance to speak with a residency program director. The topic of young doctors came up. As is often the case when doctors of my generation talk about younger doctors, the issue of attitudes on work and life came to the fore. We olders like to bemoan the crazy […]
…I’d be like swim coach Mr. Todd Schmitz. As chronicled in the WSJ: At some point in the past, Mr. Todd Schmitz was a regular guy who coached kids’ swimming. Not any more. Coach Schmitz has been thrust into the media limelight by virtue of his prime student, Olympic hopeful, Missy The Missile Franklin. But […]
“Mass social media is a crock. It is an inherent contradiction. This is why I like LinkedIn more than Facebook. It has a special purpose and therefore doesn’t feel like a time waster. FWIW, I predict the next huge win in social media will be in health care.” —Rich Karlgaard (Forbes.com) writing in WSJ […]
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Impressive writing
There’s a lot of impressive physician writers out there. I’d like to point you to one that really speaks to me. His name is Jordan Grumet. Dr. G seems wise beyond his years. His most recent essay, Have you compromised yourself? strikes my relevant neurons. We, doctors included, amble through this world accompanied by our […]
Who knew that a having a nuclear stress test might put you at risk for suspicion of terrorism? No, I am not making this up. A famous medical blogger, known as the Skeptical Scalpel, cited this bizarre news report of a CT firefighter who was stopped by the state police. The unsuspecting public servant was […]