It’s easy to forget. We get up each morning to peace. I’m looking out my window now at the flowers, and birds, and walkers strolling by. They all look so free. It is all so easy. It goes without saying that all living creatures desire freedom. In the US, freedom comes as a default; it’s […]
Smarter people have weighed in on the sadness in Boston. I can’t help it. Writing helps me feel better. I am really sorry for the people who have lost life or limb. As a parent, grandparent, scratch that, as a fellow human, just thinking about bombs and bullets hitting human bodies makes me want to […]
Every once in a while a news item becomes so big that a threshold is reached. Thinking people must weigh in. When the US Supreme Court hears two cases involving the rights and treatment of individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, there is a lot at stake. Our country faces a really important […]
I tweeted yesterday that the US healthcare delivery system remains broken. With only 140 characters, there was little means to expand. Let me tell you a story and then you be the judge. The patient was elderly and had multiple chronic medical problems, including the chief complaint of debilitating orthopedic issues. I was asked to […]
Judging other doctors is tough. You are torn. On the one hand, as a member of the profession, it’s hard to read stories of misdeeds of fellow cardiologists and remain neutral. You want to call out the foul. You want to set the record straight. That doctor did wrong. Justice needs to be done. I […]
Medicine is that way. You can get yourself in nadirs. It’s emotional, being a real doctor. You care about so much. You are attached. That’s the problem. Attachment leads to suffering and then to nadirs. Truth be told, most doctors, myself included, hang a lot of their self-esteem on the doctoring peg. I’m not sure […]
The first order of business today is to point you to an updated version of yesterday’s guest post. Dr Schloss, the thinker that he is, emailed me an eighth tip for survival in the new healthcare climate. Don’t be surprised if this list grows. It’s worth quoting: 8. Take Refuge with your Patients: Even on […]
It is with great pleasure that I offer the following guest post from Edward J. Schloss, MD, (Twitter ID @EJSMD) the medical director of cardiac electrophysiology at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, OH. One of the many rewards of writing a blog is making friends. Jay Schloss started as a ‘social media’ friend but now that […]
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 […]
Being mid-week, I had planned to tell you about the recent news concerning the role of fitness as a predictor of real outcomes. Important as this is, it will have to wait. I’ve got something much better. Though it isn’t about exercise; it is about health and happiness and soothing inflammation. Writing this year’s best […]
When I first started writing this blog in 2009, I asked a dean of the an English department about taking a writing class. He was patient, answering tersely that the best way to improve at writing was to read. Reading can get away from you if you are not careful. Almost as much as Ironman […]