At the medical school I attended, one of the first classes students take is Medical Terminology. It was taught at the time (I can’t imagine she’s still there now) by a batty old woman from Eastern Europe who everybody adored. … Continue Reading
The other day, I had cause to sit in on a medical appointment. I’ve sat in on lots of medical appointments over the years, but this was one of those relatively rare times when I was there because of my… Continue Reading
No big surprises here: Antibiotics are important drugs, often restoring health and even saving lives. But like all drugs, they can have unwanted and serious side effects, some of which may not become apparent until many thousands of patients have… Continue Reading
Remember Bill Frist? Heart surgeon? Former Senate Majority Leader? Super-genius doctor, such that he could make an authoritative diagnosis about a condition totally outside of his specialty based on videotape of a patient he did not otherwise examine? (Except whoopsie,… Continue Reading
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who had a good point to make, but went so over the top that they lost you anyway? Someone who, if they’d kept their arguments reasonable and their criticisms balanced, might… Continue Reading
It was with a sinking feeling that I heard the news this morning — the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a new policy statement regarding circumcision of newborn males. I don’t normally greet news of revised policy statements by… Continue Reading
I had an off week a little while ago. Nothing terrible, mind you. No catastrophes. But things felt a little more tedious. I had to schlepp around a little more than usual And a few clinical judgment calls I made… Continue Reading
[The other day, Rose and I were discussing the ethics regarding the allocation of medical resources in certain situations, and we decided that we’d like to write a joint post about it. This is the first time we’ve done something… Continue Reading
The tension that exists between providing good care for patients and making a profit in the healthcare business is one of my signal preoccupations. In our current fee-for-service model, there exists a seemingly intractable conflict between prioritizing the needs of… Continue Reading
Brother blogger and good buddy Will clued me in to an interesting post by Ken over at Popehat. It’s about Florida’s appallingly stupid law that vaguely forbids doctors from asking patients about gun ownership “unless information is relevant to patient’s… Continue Reading