Life overflows with choices. And consequences. You can choose to smoke and then not be surprised to die a difficult death from cancer. You can choose to eat more calories than you burn and then buy bigger belts. You can choose to “need†more stuff and then, surely, remain unfulfilled. The more we learn about […]
I received an interesting email this week from the American College of Cardiology. The purpose of the note was to relay the results of a survey regarding member’s views and concerns of the new changes in board certification. Before I tell you about the survey’s striking results and clear message, it’s worth reviewing the contentious […]
It’s time for another post on truth and healthcare. (This almost sounds like a good series.) I’ve recently written that the VA healthcare system represents the truth—and that Americans should get over the Pollyanna view that triage, wait lists, and taking care of increasing numbers of increasingly sick patients can be managed with magic. The […]
(This blog was born from writing race reports for a masters bike racing team. What follows is of that form. It’s a little longer than I like, and, therefore, as an antidote, no more than a few hundred words occur without an image.) It’s intriguing how experiences get burned into the brain’s memory center. I […]
CardioStim is the name given to the biennial gathering of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) in the Mediterranean resort city of Nice, France. This was my first (ever) trip to France. As most of you know, I write an electrophysiology column (blog) called Trials and Fibrillations over at theHeart.org, which is now called Medscape […]
My mind is changing about statins. I’m growing increasingly worried about the irrational exuberance over these drugs, especially when used for prevention of heart disease that is yet to happen. An elderly patient called my office last week to tell me thank you…not for a successful procedure or surgery, but rather, for helping with a […]
This is a very short story about a baby bird, a yoga mom and a hawk. I tell it because it made me think about the disordered way we frame healthcare decisions. **** The neighborhood is one of old brick houses, cracked cement sidewalks and tall trees. What was once a suburb is now a […]
What is the greatest possible thing that could happen to you today? Is it winning a million dollars? Seeing your children smile? Going to a job you love? Perhaps it is waking up next to a spouse whom you love and is also your best friend? These are all winners, for sure. But what if […]
Sometimes I worry about where technology is leading the healthcare profession. It is not just the distraction of white screens and electronic health records. These are bad, terrible, in fact. The concern I have runs deeper than just monopolistic EHRs. We, and I mean we as in the caregivers, are losing touch with the basics. […]
Medicine people give it a sterile-sounding name. Polypharmacy means giving too many drugs, usually to an elderly person. But this practice is worthy of clearer words: dumb, dreadful or doctoring at its worst. The idea to mention the growing problem of giving too many pills in combination came to me after reading this Medscape coverage […]
The VA healthcare story has me thinking about the good aspects of delays in medical therapy. Typical American intuitive thinking holds that healthcare waiting lists are a bad thing. The two central tenets of this mindset are that healthcare brings health, and most of medicine is as time sensitive as cardiac arrest or heart attack. […]