A few weeks ago Bill Maher made a number of critical remarks about medicine and physicians. I sent Mr. Maher the following response in an effort to address his comments. I am sharing this with you in hopes that other physicians will also speak out in defense of our profession.
Dear Mr. Maher,
Let me start by saying that I have been a …
Bill Maher criticizes doctors: A physician responds
In medical school, I was taught to keep my distance. To remember that the patient is the one with the disease. I was told to protect my heart, to be a little cynical, a little deprecatory, to keep a separation between me and the patient. Because they can hurt you.
For 18 years, I met people on what was arguably the worst …
Stop trying to be God. Be human.
This morning, a friend of mine posted an article on Facebook that was titled, “Dear anti-vax parents, we’re not mad at you. Sincerely, your doctor.” She had captioned it, “Maybe when all the vitriol and anger and judgment dies down, maybe we can start having conversations like this, instead.”
The funny thing is that I had posted the exact same …
As a mother, I’m angry at vaccine refusers. As a physician, I’m scared.
Just because it’s simple doesn’t make it easy. Take a look at habits.
Do you floss? We all know the advantages, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do it. Yet only 28 percent of people say they floss regularly. How about covering your mouth when you cough? Again, it’s not difficult, but we all know people who fail to grasp the concept.
Unfortunately, the same is true for hand-washing. It’s …
A helping hand: Continuing improvement in hand hygiene
Recently, the American College of Surgeons — our profession’s premier organization encompassing all surgical sub-specialties — launched its updated website. Included in this website are online communities where surgeons from around the country and even further away, can connect. In my interpretation of these communities, surgeons can connect over shared subspecialty topics (e.g., colorectal surgery, general surgery, orthopedic surgery), shared clinical interests (e.g., ethics, geriatric surgery, surgical safety), or shared circumstances (e.g., surgeons practicing …
How can female surgeons break through the glass ceiling?
I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!
– The White Rabbit, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
It is in the very words, “running late.” It is not walking late, or strolling late, or even meandering late. It is always running late, the phrase itself active, implying urgency and speed, rush and anxiety. The distress, just like the White Rabbit. The …
Running late: The bane of every doctor
Loss is something all humans face in their everyday lives. As a physician, the effects are often magnified. People die, they move away, they graduate from your services, or occasionally they pursue care elsewhere. Parting can sometimes bring relief, and others a deep sense of failure. But with Clara, I’m not sure we actually parted. Mostly, I was left with confusion.
Clara came to me by way of the nursing home. …
I lost a patient, but gained a friend
I awoke one Saturday morning to a terribly familiar feeling — a tight, barky cough, fast breathing, severe shortness of breath and burning in my chest. Another severe asthma attack. I knew I was in trouble.
Twenty-three years ago, when I was an internal medicine resident, I went to be evaluated for recurrent pneumonia. I wound up being diagnosed with cough variant …
Is a doctor allowed to become sick?
A physician in Texas posts this photo on Facebook. Caption: “My schedule one morning in January 2014. Never again …”
Yay! Another physician breaks free from assembly-line medicine.
High-overhead, high-volume offices sacrifice the sacred physicians-patient relationship and perpetuate a disease-billing management system. This is not health care. It’s abuse.
Patients: Avoid clinics with 10-minute slots. Go for docs who offer 30 to 60-minute appointments. Physicians: …
Health care or abuse: Which are you receiving?
I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile, and finally, am going to spill some “secrets” about me and my colleagues.
We are in debt. I mean, real debt. We are in debt. I mean, real debt. It actually costs most of us almost 1 million dollars to become your doctor.
It has taken us a long time to get here.
Let’s do some …
Secrets that your doctors are dying to tell you
Recently I wrote about the problems with maintenance of certification requirements. One of the phrases I repeatedly read when I was researching the piece was “the patient as customer.” Here’s a quote from the online journal produced by Accenture, the management consulting company:
Patients are less forgiving of poor service than they once were, and the bar keeps being raised higher because …
Patients are not customers. Here are 6 reasons why.
Assigning patients to doctors. Who still does this?
We don’t assign hungry people to restaurants, hairy people to barbers, or passengers to airlines. Even State Farm allows me to choose between Maaco or my local chop shop every time I crash my car. We do assign kids to teachers, but still, I don’t need too many analogies to tell me that assigning …
Stop the arranged marriages between patient and provider
Maintenance is the process of maintaining or preserving someone or something, or the state of being maintained.
Our certification documents that we have trained (in my case in internal medicine) and that we can pass a test on the breadth of internal medicine knowledge. We accept that the ABIM has developed a test the evaluates our entire exposure to the many diseases and treatments that reflect our patients.
The idea of maintenance of …
What is true maintenance of medical knowledge?
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Help, I need somebody! Help, not just anybody! Help, you know I need someone, help!
– The Beatles
We are all here on earth to help each other; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.
– W. H. Auden
“Help the doctor!”
I’m sure most surgeons have heard this exasperated statement at some point in the operating room. It is said with that special mix of …
Help the doctor! When systems and the system fail physicians.
Early on in my career I called an Indian internist in the middle of the night to admit a patient to him.
The patient was an 88-year-old female with advanced dementia, a terminal brain disease. She had aspiration pneumonia, which is often the final common pathway of this illness. She was in respiratory failure, in septic shock and was a “full code.”
I can still recall our 4 a.m. conversation:
“Hi, Dr. …
What can we learn about palliative care from Indian physicians?
Significant snow in New England every winter is about as certain as sun in Florida every summer. When I moved to the USA from the south of (old) England to do my medical residency in Maryland, my first few years living in the United States were relatively snow-free.
But when I started my first job as an attending physician in central Massachusetts, I was in for a big shock. I had …
What hospitals can learn from snow preparedness
Our family loves to hike. Traveling the trails is a deeply happy place for us. In fact, I don’t think there’s ever been a time when one of us suggested taking a hike, and everyone didn’t unanimously and enthusiastically agree. A few weeks ago, my family took a lovely hike in a state park in Massachusetts. It was a gorgeous day: temperature in the upper 40s, blue skies, no wind. The …
Like hikers, patients also need guides
I am a physician, but I also consider myself a mother hen. When I have a census of patients, I think of them as little chicks, perhaps old roosters, clucking hens, tender capons. Some are old, some young, some have been chased out of the coop by an angry dog, caught in the wires and sent to me for care. Some …
We need fewer paternalistic physicians and more maternal ones
Ever wonder what patients really want from doctors?
Is it the fancy buildings with marble fountains?
Is it the board certifications and diplomas on the wall?
Is it the expert medical jargon and starched white coats?
Nope. None of the above.
Listen up, docs: Patients just want the real you. Ya know — you. The competent and caring you who really listens with compassion. The real you …
What do patients really want from doctors?
Mom. Dad.
Happy. Sad.
Friend. Trust.
I remember playing this game. A friend would say one thing, and then I would say the first thing that came to my mind. For some reason, it would pass the time. I remember how some words would spark an emotion or a memory. Sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy. But, playing that game was one of …
Let’s break the association of palliative care as hospice
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