They are gathered around the back of the darkened room, standing too close together, eating hurriedly, non-enjoyably. Â A voice crackles over a 1980s-era microphone. The food is in the back, the slide projector in the front. Â One Friday a month, the doctor’s lounge is transformed into a lecture room. The retired docs looking for […]
Category: Doctoring
The human heart resides in a lightless 98.6-degree chest cavity. Its contracting muscles are further cushioned by the well-lubricated glistening smooth pericardial sac. One wouldn’t think that the heart could sense the time of year. The heart’s rhythm should remain independent of the holiday season. But then there is December in the EP lab. They are […]
I cannot stand it; that mickey-mouse web address had to go. Cyclists have dress codes. WordPress looks so much better. I am in the process of changing over, with help of course. The first step was changing my domain name. It is now: www.drjohnm.org Such changes feels like putting together christmas presents without a manual. […]
It beats 100,000 times per day. It pumps liters of blood per minute. If it stops, you stop, in about six seconds. For the human heart to contract this reliably, without hiccups, it requires a steady stream of nutrients. A healthy heart has clean pipes. There are two ways to keep pipes clear of blockage. […]
This year’s American Heart Association (AHA) meeting is brimming with news. Since the WSJ had ICD devices in its corporate news section today, it seems a good place to start. Here is the summary: (The short version) According to the RAFT study, patients who are ICD candidates, and have a left bundle branch block fare […]
For me, November 14th will always be a special day. Today is the 16th anniversary of my grandmother’s death. ‘Non’ was in her late 80s when she died. I was in Indiana learning to be a cardiologist, she was at home in Windsor Locks, Ct. I have written about her love previously—as an infant blogger. […]
The best part of doctoring is its humanness. Machines cannot do it–not even Apple products. But that’s the worst part too. Since humans practice medicine, there will be ‘medical errors.’ Â And when doctors err, people–not spreadsheets or profits–are hurt. Â That’s the rub. Â Like any endeavor, the greater the reward, the greater the risk. Â […]
Have you ever thought, “What if I won an election and was put in charge of an administration.” Halloween weekend seems the perfect time for considering the fantasy (or some would arguer horror) of a DrJohnM administration. (Let it be known, I have some leadership experience: I lead local group rides with some success. A […]
How long did Henry’s revelation last? How long did he stay “nice” after his head injury. For me, it has only been 5 days since “I whacked my head so hard, it turned me nice.” The frenetic pace this week, and especially today, has been a real test of such ‘concussive niceness.’ In doctoring, weeks […]
In response to my story on how physician consolidation and hospital ownership of doctors is affecting patient referral patterns, I received an email with this attached PDF file. (Smudges mine) Click to enlarge It is from a cardiac surgeon who doggedly chooses to remain independent. This document appears on his website and also ran in […]
Like most doctors, I have, on rare occasions, been bestowed an award of one kind or another. In this way medicine parallels the current everyone-is-a-winner ethos of society. Nonetheless, awards are nearly always a good thing, and so being asked to serve as the official race doctor of the USGP was a shiny trophy indeed. […]