Here are ten ways that Internet diagnosing interferes with your health care.
1. Dr. Google doesn’t know you. Can’t see you, can’t hear your story, can’t smell you, and can’t touch you. It doesn’t have intuition or gut feelings about you.
2. The Internet breeds cyberchondria in some and false reassurance in others. The more complex the problem, the more likely your self-diagnosis …
Dr. Google will never know you or care as much as I do
As Baltimore erupts in fiery protest following the death of Freddie Gray, the city joins scores of others who have recently challenged the role of police in community.
With the disproportionate representation of black males in the correctional system and the videotaped deaths of those approached by police for seemingly petty infractions, the longstanding concern for a criminal justice system that differentially treats communities of color, is …
The Baltimore riots: We should look beyond stereotypes
If you are a doctor, nurse, patient, or just someone interested in patient safety, you should read a five-part story called “The Overdose: Harm in a Wired Hospital” excerpted from a book The Digital Doctor by Dr. Robert Wachter.
Dr. Wachter and the hospital are to be commended for publicizing this incident so others may learn from it. The hospital staff, the patient, and his mother, also deserve credit for allowing their …
The downsides of automating health care
The riots in Baltimore are all over the news. As a parent, it would seem like the best thing to say to your kids is that riots are bad, that violence isn’t the way to solve anything.
But that would be missing the point — and missing an opportunity.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think that riots are good or that violence is the way to solve things. But what is …
What to tell your kids about the Baltimore riots
The recent killing of Walter Scott was another brutal reminder of the home African-Americans wake to daily. Their America, is one where your father might not come home at night, because his brake light went out, and that cost him his life. It’s a place where petty crimes are penalized by life sentences, doled out on the streets by the very men and women charged with their …
Walter Scott and a physician’s conscience
JAMA published an opinion piece about the controversial issue of patients secretly recording their physicians during encounters. We live in the era of the smartphone. Everyone has one — soccer moms, teenagers, young kids who can’t even read yet, elderly nursing home patients who can’t safely feed themselves. Everyone. And these devices have amazing powers of audiovisual capability. We all know this. …
When is it OK to secretly record your doctor?
She was so young — only 32 when diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had given birth to a son only four months earlier and by all rights should have been celebrating being a new mother. But, instead, she had developed acute pelvic pain, undergone emergent removal of her uterus and ovaries, and was now in my office to discuss …
A patient this oncologist can’t forget
As a wife and mother, I have days that are very difficult, especially since my husband is in training. I go several days in a row where I only see him right before bedtime, and some days he is unable to see our son at all. I often feel like I have no control of our schedule, and am lucky to …
Fellowship training, as viewed by a physician’s spouse
It has taken me almost two years to be able to write this. We said goodbye to our beloved dog in early May of 2013. I grieved for well over a year.
About a month-and-a-half prior to his death, we had a big medical scare with him. I wrote at that time about how dealing with a veterinary emergency can provide us with some insights and practice parallels to dealing with …
End-of-life care: What I learned from a pet’s death
We have all seen the statistics; America is an aging country. The baby boomer generation is retiring, and families are having fewer and fewer children.
In health care, we often hear about this issue in the context of an inadequate health care workforce. An aging population in conjunction with the ACA has created a quickly growing pool of patients that outpaces the slow growth in the supply of health care providers.
But …
A geriatrics-driven health care system
Those of us in health care face tough decisions every day. Should we spend less time with patient A so we can have more time to tell patient B about a bad pathology report?
Should we work through lunch to see a few more patients but risk burning out our office staff at a time when morale is at an all-time low?
Should we skip our child’s piano recital to attend that …
Burnt out physician? Creativity can help.
For my entire life as a physician, from medical school, through residency and now until this 22nd year in practice, I have subscribed to the idea that I should have a chaperone when performing breast, pelvic or rectal exams on women. I was taught to do this from the beginning, and I still do it.
Why is this? On some level, the …
We’re going to need more medical chaperones. Here’s why.
I boarded the 8:30 Metro-North railroad train home from Manhattan recently after leaving a medical meeting. It had been a long and productive day, but now I was searching for a mint in my pocketbook because I had a weird taste in my mouth. All I found was a lollipop.
Just before the train left Grand Central, a family of three hurried on and sat near me. The father said, “My …
Being a doctor sometimes extends far beyond our own patients
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Have a little faith in me.
– John Hiatt
Spring ushers in major holidays in many faiths and religions. The rites of spring and the vernal equinox, new life and rebirth are springtime themes and touchstones across many cultures. Faith is important to many people and across many cultures and religions. I would assert faith is even important to atheists and agnostics, and those without a formal religious tradition.
Faith is important …
Trust and faith are essential to physician-patient relationship
The theater darkens; children stop laughing, adults sit forward in their chairs. Framed by a single light in the center of the stage, he stands; tuxedo, white shirt, black tie. He stares into the silent crowd, slowly turning his head, lips touched with the slightest, smallest, cruelest of smiles. His gaze fixes upon you; he is just feet away. His hand rises to the brim of his tall hat and …
A couple of months ago I finally joined the swelling ranks of Uber customers. Several friends had been trying to persuade me for some time to start using the service, but me being generally skeptical of new technology (what they call a “late adopter”), it took an extreme situation to get me to finally download the app.
It was a freezing February …
What Uber drivers can teach health care
Count no man happy till his end is known.
– Herodotus
This was true in ancient Greece 2,500 years ago. It is even more true today — aggressive end-of-life hospital care, the lack of sufficient palliative care, and unduly restrictive assisted suicide laws make it impossible for most people to die with dignity.
There is no worse death than a hospital death. Dying well means dying at home. This requires preparation and preparation …
We should strive for a good death that occurs at the proper time and place
Everything eventually expires.
I looked down at the bottle of natural spring water in astonishment. It had an expiration date. Scanning the empty hospital cafeteria on an early Sunday morning, I wondered what on earth about spring water could go bad? It had no living parts, Nothing that serves as nourishment for wayward bacteria or fungus. The container was sealed. Pristine.
I figured it was another fiscal hoax, perpetrated on unsuspecting consumers. …
Our time on this earth is finite
Time magazine published this article about why Hillary Clinton is the perfect age to run for president.
The author, Dr. Holland who is a psychiatrist, chose not to focus on Ms. Clinton’s vast political experience or her education but rather on Ms. Clinton’s menopausal status.
Yes, you read that right, when it comes to qualifications for president of the United States menopause trumps a …
Hillary Clinton’s hormones have nothing to do with her qualifications
Who is a PCP? (And does that second “P” stand for “physician” or “provider”?)
Who gets to say? Does it matter?
Perhaps we should start with some basic qualifications: The degree of MD or DO, the satisfactory completion of an accredited residency in family medicine, and successfully passing the written examination of the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFP, an organization distinct and independent of the AAFP). Hard to argue with those.
How …
Who gets to call themselves family physicians?
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