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Doctoring Health Care Reform

Physician satisfaction: Seeing both sides of the debate

Students of the obvious might consider the topic of physician satisfaction one of mere folly. The “rich doctor” label is an easy one, and the recent Medicare data dump, which revealed hordes of physicians who were doing quite well, thank you, only strengthened it. Yet, when one moves past intuition, into analytical thinking, the contentment […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation

How successful is AF ablation?

Let’s talk about success. At first glance, knowing whether a medical or surgical intervention achieves success seems quite simple. An antibiotic clears an infection–or it does not. A surgery removes a tumor with clean margins–or it does not. An angioplasty and stent open an artery during a heart attack–or it does not. In the case […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Social Media/Writing/Blogging

My Social Media Talk at the 2014 Western AF (atrial fibrillation) symposium

 How can social media improve AF patient and provider interaction? It was an honor to speak at the seventh annual Western AF symposium this past weekend in Park City Utah. Once in the shadow of the Boston AF symposium, Dr. Nassir Marrouche (@nmarrouche) and his colleagues at the University of Utah have elevated Western AF […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Healthy Living inflammation

AF ablation and the hard truths about AF

Atrial fibrillation is a mysterious disease. We know a lot but surely not enough. We look at AF but are we really seeing it? I believe there are hard truths to this disease. Hard in a way that neither patients nor doctors like. More on that later. First to some news on a major AF […]

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Cycling Stuff Doctoring General Cardiology General Medicine Health Care Healthy Living inflammation

NSAIDs — Yet another dubious “health” product at CVS

Now that the ‘healthiness’ of products sold at CVS stores is a matter of public discourse, it seems a perfect time to mention the common pain relievers known as Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). It just so happens that two FDA advisory committees are meeting today and tomorrow to discuss the cardiovascular risks of NSAIDs. The […]

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General Ablation General Cardiology Health Care Healthy Living

New post up on Cardiology Medscape: Lessons learned from the failure of Renal denervation for high blood pressure

Most people come by it honestly. They eat too much, move too little, skimp on sleep, take on too much stress and then succumb to buying larger clothes. The word we use in medicine is insidious. High blood pressure (hypertension – HTN) is one of the leading cardiovascular problems of this time. Some have called […]

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Doctoring Social Media/Writing/Blogging

The biggest mistake is not learning from one…

A friend recently asked me why I am so hard on doctors. “You write a lot of negative stuff about us,”  he said. That worries me. I am not a nihilist. I believe in what we do. I put doctoring decidedly in the noble category, right alongside teachers. In fact, my attachment to doctoring is […]

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Doctoring General Medicine Health Care Knowledge

With vaccines…Is there no middle ground, no room for questions?

“We should be as demanding of ourselves as we are of those who challenge us.” Dr. Jerome Groopman, writing in the New Rupublic Writing about the medical decision-making surrounding vaccines proved to be sketchy. Yesterday’s post brought stinging criticism from both sides of the debate. A pediatrician felt the structure of the post was patronizing. […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Dabigatran/Rivaroxaban/Apixaban Doctoring General Ablation General Cardiology General Medicine Healthy Living ICD/Pacemaker

Recap of 2013 American Heart Association Session

Just a few weeks before the 2013 American Heart Association Sessions, Shelley Wood, the managing news editor of theheart.org emailed to ask if I was up for going to the meeting. With trips to San Francisco, Denver, Athens and Amsterdam already in the books this year, I had counted 2013 as a win. I was […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Doctoring General Cardiology General Medicine Healthy Living Social Media/Writing/Blogging

New post up over at TheHeart.org-Medscape Cardiology — Part 2 of Progress in Cardiology

Part one of Progress in Cardiology was a sober look at the current lull in innovation. In part 2, as promised, I tell you what is right and optimistic about my field. There is a lot. The post touches on the return of the basics. Basics in doctoring and basics in therapeutics are huge new […]

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Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Cyclocross Reflection

Leadership, teamwork, volunteerism and goodwill…makes stuff work

(Editor’s note: You can skip the words and toggle down to the images at the end.) This past week was about bike racing. As most of you know, I (and my wife and son) race bikes for a local cycling team. Our title sponsor is Papa John’s Pizza, which is headquartered in Louisville. It sounds […]