Flexibility… -Bend easy without breaking. -The ability to be easily modified. -Willingness to change or compromise. Social media physician leader Dr. Bryan Vartabedian wrote a post last week in which he called flexibility a necessary skill of the 21st century doctor. He got the idea from another physician leader, Dr. Eric Topol. I’ve been thinking […]
Category: Health Care
This morning I awoke to a picture of myself in the Wall Street Journal. I was asked to comment on the effects of the coming Sunshine Act. Respected health care journalist Peter Loftus found me through social media channels. What follows are some thoughts about how the Sunshine Act might play out. — Every Thursday […]
The wrist artery hardly had time to seal. (Surely it was a radial.) The controversy came that fast. The drumbeat of naysayers seemed to start only minutes after a prideful press release announced that George W Bush had undergone successful cardiac stent placement. The ever-quotable cardiologist from Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Steven Nissen, said, “This is […]
Thanks for all the support on my last post. It’s striking how sometimes pointing out the obvious gets a lot of attention. I have a quick follow-up post. The purpose is to show you a real-life and current example of how medical hubris might have killed thousands of patients. My friend and colleague, Dr. Wes […]
There was great commentary on my last post. Thank you all. I learned a lot from your words. This is how it’s supposed to work here. One comment in particular has stuck with me. It concerned the formation of a how-to be-healthy booklet. An information manual, if you will. I’ve thought about this many times […]
It’s going to be hard to anesthetize this one with compassion. I’m sorry, but the report card on US health is not good. We aren’t heading in the right direction, and everyone involved knows that it’s because of a failure to accept the truth. You have probably already heard the news concerning the state of […]
It’s an appropriate day to talk about stress. If you treat heart rhythm problems, you can’t miss the effects of stress. It matters so much. Both acute and chronic–though mostly chronic–stress wreaks havoc on the heart’s electrical system. And it’s not just the heart rhythm; the chronic inflammation that goes with long-lasting stress negatively impacts […]
Patient safety and hospital quality is a scary topic. I’ll go easy. I’m just a doctor. I don’t know much. Entire departments, filled with cubicles, computers and well-meaning people, now exist to keep hospitals tightly regulated and running perfectly. There is data to analyze, regulations to read, and oh so many meetings to attend. This […]
My hospital has just weathered an impressive upswing in patient volume. The house was full for weeks. The experience highlights an important aspect about quality care–an obvious one that doesn’t always make headlines. What I notice when the hospital gets full is that patients are sent to units that they don’t normally go to. For […]
There I was sitting at the computer in between ablation cases. It was a normal Thursday. I was thinking about my next column over at theHeart.org. A nurse from the catheterization lab came in and told me that Dr. Dillon was giving a press conference. He was announcing three major initiatives for heart attack care […]
Healthcare looks much different than it did just a few years ago. When you let your mind wander about where we were, it’s shocking really. There’s cultural changes, including an explosion of complexity of care, an infusion of young doctors with different ideas about life, an evolving set of incentives, employment models and a heck […]