Let’s be honest: If you are bold enough to hit the ‘publish’ button, it’s normal to care what readers think. I write about Medicine; I like doctors; I respect doctors. So it matters how colleagues react to my words. I was both proud and concerned when the Greater Louisville Medical Society decided to republish my […]
Reform of healthcare in the United States is infinitely complex. Millions of words have been written. The noise drowns out the signal. It’s rare therefore that one paragraph could sum up the problem so concisely. It came from Edward Davies, an editor at the British Medical Journal. He was quoting journalist Owen Dwyer who was […]
Amy Dombroski, an American cyclcocross racer, was killed today in Belgium. She was hit by a truck while on a training ride. The full story can be read at VeloNews. The ‘cross’ community is a tightly knit one. People know each other. It’s a small group of folks hearty enough to embrace the madness of […]
On day 1 of ObamaCare, the headline in our paper said “SHUTDOWN.” It’s here; it’s really here. You might be wondering what’s been going on in the hospital or office–the contact points where healthcare actually happens. The funny thing is: nothing seems any different. And…this is the problem with ObamaCare. It hasn’t, won’t, or perhaps […]
As some of you may know, theHeart.org has merged with Medscape Cardiology. This will be my first post on the new site. Dr Donald Low was a prominent Canadian physician. When Toronto faced a deadly SARS outbreak a decade ago, Dr Low was a voice of calm and reason. His research in cell signaling and […]
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Perspective…
Doctoring is a great job. It’s a privilege to serve with and for other people. Sadly, the impermanence of it all is often forgotten. This brings it back. I don’t know about you, but I find myself drawn to things that bring me back to the present moment. JMM P.S. Fellow electrophysiologist Wayne (@Toaster_Pastry) is […]
Perhaps writing about health matters from the perspective of a cardiologist/bike racer is a little like parenting: At times the message seems less than compassionate, even though it’s born out of concern for others, knowledge and a tincture of middle-age experience. The many excellent comments on my recent telomere/heart-health post stirred me to write a […]
This short video (4:02) comes from one on my favorite YouTube channels. I write on a whiteboard every office day. But I’m no Dr. Mike Evans. (@docmikeevans) in this clip, the Canadian doctor explains a health behavior that Europeans seem much better at than most Americans. JMM
A recent study on healthy lifestyle changes got me thinking about why heart disease remains the most deadly human disease. A small study of just a few motivated men with low-risk prostate cancer garnered attention because it contained two important key words: Ornish and Telomeres. Everyone knows Dr. Dean Ornish. And most of us know […]
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 […]
“Why don’t we die the way we say we want to die? In part because we say we want good deaths but act as if we won’t die at all.†Katy Butler, WSJ There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding right now in nearly every hospital in this nation. Aggressive life-prolonging care of the elderly too […]