It beats 100,000 times per day. It pumps liters of blood per minute. If it stops, you stop, in about six seconds. For the human heart to contract this reliably, without hiccups, it requires a steady stream of nutrients. A healthy heart has clean pipes. There are two ways to keep pipes clear of blockage. […]
Everyone likes winning. Bike racers like it. So do doctors. When doctors win, lives get better. That’s the ends. The means, the journey, the race itself, vary from the simple to the complex, from the boring to the eventful, from the free to the obscenely expensive. For instance, lives are enhanced when a complex catheter-based […]
This year’s American Heart Association (AHA) meeting is brimming with news. Since the WSJ had ICD devices in its corporate news section today, it seems a good place to start. Here is the summary: (The short version) According to the RAFT study, patients who are ICD candidates, and have a left bundle branch block fare […]
For me, November 14th will always be a special day. Today is the 16th anniversary of my grandmother’s death. ‘Non’ was in her late 80s when she died. I was in Indiana learning to be a cardiologist, she was at home in Windsor Locks, Ct. I have written about her love previously—as an infant blogger. […]
The best part of doctoring is its humanness. Machines cannot do it–not even Apple products. But that’s the worst part too. Since humans practice medicine, there will be ‘medical errors.’ Â And when doctors err, people–not spreadsheets or profits–are hurt. Â That’s the rub. Â Like any endeavor, the greater the reward, the greater the risk. Â […]
I loved my old status. Perhaps, reveled in it would be a better description. I was a crotchety generic-medicine only doctor.** Sadly, my status changed today. Dabigatran (Pradaxa) was the culprit. It was a little nerve-racking. I wrote the order, looked at it, thought it out again, talking to myself, “John, are you sure you […]
“Hey…where did those cupcakes go?” Like a never-ending western North Carolina climb where each switchback reveals another uphill, and the finish is shielded by tall pines, the struggle to lose weight and to stay lean is incessant. In wrestling weight gain competitive cyclists share the same mat as ‘regular’ Americans. Like jockeys, all competitive bike […]
It will not last forever, nothing ever does. Some day I will have to find another big-pharma punching bag. It’s true; our pal dronedarone (Multaq) is back in the news again. This time the Multaq news (as reported on Cardiobrief and Pharmalot) is not about its inefficacy or Sanofi-sponsored professors, but rather concerns about it’s […]
I remember in high school, as an assignment, I wrote a letter to a prominent business person. I will try it again. In 2010, this would be an e-letter. To: J Martin CarrollCEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation: The makers of the recently-released exciting new oral blood-thinner, dabigatran (Pradaxa). Dear Sir, To start off on a positive […]
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Inspiration
I give you this video, re-“embedded” with permission from Greg Keller, owner of the Mud and Cowbells website. For cyclocross crazies the season is progressing. The days are shorter, the air colder, and the skies less blue. Our legs, and for some, our minds have grown weary with the year’s racing fatigue. For the non-cyclists, […]
I do not consider myself a right-wing healthcare fear-monger. But if I were, this study would be worthy of amplification. As reported concisely in the NY Times, from the journal Demography (not previously known to me), population researchers reported that even though elderly Americans have more medical problems than their peers in Britain, once they […]