She was a Korean woman, spoke passable English. We always exchanged pleasantries, and she called me “doctor” when I picked up my laundry. This time she was notably quiet, distant.
I didn’t figure it out until I got home and hung up my jacket, on the inside of which I noticed she’d pinned an envelope. It contained a photo I’d taken months ago, left and forgotten in one of my pockets. …
Sixteen stab wounds, seriously delivered
I’ve played over a thousand ice hockey games in my life, but I had no idea that yesterday’s adult men’s league game in Cleveland would be the most memorable.
I grew up in Canada, three blocks from Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player ever, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my game last night was more important than any game that my former neighbor played. Tonight’s game was literally a matter …
What happens when two hockey teams and a defibrillator cross paths?
As the number of restrictions on physicians working with industry continue to grow, and the places where policies prohibit physicians from collaborating with industry expand, close examination of the reasons supporting these policies is necessary.
The current trend of academic medical centers (AMCs), professional organizations, and States that have begun adopting policies that restrict permissible interactions and activities between industry and …
Policies prohibiting collaboration between physicians and industry
When I was a family medicine intern, I met a diabetic patient in the hospital who had stopped seeing his regular doctor after he lost his job and his health insurance.
His untreated diabetes made his feet go numb. He stepped on a nail and didn’t realize it until he noticed …
Preventing disease saves the crippling costs of tertiary care
Recently, I attended a conference on integrative medicine. It was a lovely conference and I learned a lot: about Chinese therapies used for cancer, about osteopathic manipulation, and about the growing community of doctors that respect the value of complimentary medicine practices and are working to integrate them into their general practice.
I also left with a sense of dissatisfaction with what …
Could alternative medicine practitioners take the lead in health policy?
by Neha Jain, MD
Think back to your first memory of death.
Was it a loved one? A stranger? A pet? Were you sad, happy, or just curious?
My grandmother, Nani, died unexpectedly. During the wake, my cousins and I played together in the bedroom where we had been restricted. All through that memory, there’s a strange, dark, terrible …
Palliative care and medical interventions are not mutually exclusive
A friend and I made a pact today. No more hanging out halfway, it’s all or nothing. Each of us has a dream for our lives.
Our respective dreams are almost the same, and they’re dreams that we’d almost cast aside or given up on. Why? Because they require so much faith, dedication, focus and endurance to pull off. Neither of us had wholeheartedly committed to the dream.
I’ve had a small …
Stop and really think about what you want from life
They’re everywhere, all of a sudden: little medical kiosks tucked into the back of drug stores, grocery stores, and big box outlets.
With names like “Minute Clinic” or “RediClinic,” they stress speedy, in-and-out service. And of course, you’re already there in the store, ready to buy whatever has been prescribed. A win-win, no?
No.
Everyone knows that if you’re …
If you want good pediatric care, stay away from retail clinics
The relationship a physician has not only with their patients, but also with their patient’s families, has long been the foundation of the medical system.
Over the course of time this once valued bond has had its ups and downs; however today with the internet, Obama healthcare reform, and Medicare cuts to name a few, the doctor-patient relationship finds itself in its …
Physician characteristics that are universally appreciated
I have a suggestion for all of those federal workers who were concerned about a government shutdown.
To all those who already have better insurance and better benefits than most in the private sector; for all those whose jobs pay more than equivalent private sector jobs for the same activities. Do what hospitals do. ‘Go to your jobs, and do the necessary work anyway.’
It is ironic, but hardly surprising, that the …
Federal workers worried about a shutdown should do what doctors do
Year: 1987
Setting: Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France
Position: Specialist in tropical diseases
I am a consultant in tropical diseases at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris in professor Marc Gentilini’s department, which has been receiving HIV/AIDS patients from all parts of the world since the onset of the pandemic.
Indeed, in the early days most patients came from Haiti and Africa and were seen primarily in tropical disease …
Maintaining private space when patients share trying times with you
I recently wrote about the importance of a differential diagnosis. Today I want to assume that you have a definitive diagnosis and discuss how we deal with that illness. First, some ground rules.
There are hundreds of medical texts and unlimited amounts of information on Google that help define an illness. They all portray the “textbook” description of how the illness should present, what symptoms …
Differential diagnosis and treating patients as individuals
Recently, while jogging through my community, I had the pleasure of bumping into a former colleague and his brother who were out for their daily five mile walk.
Dr. G. had attended a local medical school, finished near the top of his class, and had gone on to do his internship and residency at the premier private hospital in Miami Beach, Florida. After completing his residency …
Why does society frown on doctors earning a reasonable living?
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After an exciting and challenging day of caring for patients and teaching students, a third-year medical student on his family medicine rotation says to me, “I really like what you do, but I just cannot afford to go into family practice.”
I realized that by “afford,” he was referring not only to finances but also to the expectations of his parents, friends, and Read more…
Myths devalue the image of primary care
My mom is sick. Because of what can only be described as my crazy family dynamics I did not find out for 24 hours that she was taken by ambulance to the hospital in septic shock from pneumonia.
She was hypotensive on arrival (not good) and pancytopenic (low white cell count, low hemoglobin, and low platelets – not good either). A CT scan showed multiple large, irregular lymph nodes in her …
Caring for people is not always easy, but it is what makes us special
I am infinitely blessed by The Girl Effect. As I look back through the generations of my family, I see it rolling toward me, through me like a wave.
I am sure it started even before my grandmother stole her parents’ car with intent to drive by herself from Austin to Chicago to see the World’s Fair in 1924; I just don’t have much history to work with prior to that. …
A confident, independent, empowered woman is a force to be reckoned with
It was a dimly lit room, up on the sixth floor. I am not sure why they would not fix the light in that corridor. Even during the day, I would find this area poorly lit.
Maybe it was not the light but the grim atmosphere of oncology floor. Some of the patients there had terminal illnesses but they would still act like they had decades to live. You would be …
Doctors are trained to prevent death, but not deal with death
First do no harm.
Treat every patient with respect and dignity.
These are values I try to live by and incorporate into my daily work. Treatment of chronic pain is the scenario that puts me and every practicing primary care physician in a no-win situation regularly in the office. To try to make physicians feel more comfortable treating pain most states have tried …
Treatment of chronic pain puts doctors in a no win situation
Here’s something little known outside of the small circle of industry marketers, academic docs, PR flacks, and medical journalists: pharmaceutical and device companies (or their PR agencies) regularly offer to arrange interviews with well-known academic physicians to talk about new trials, drug approvals, and other items of obvious interest to the companies involved.
I receive these sort of invitations all …
How academic physicians are being used as live bait for journalists
In case you have not heard about it, there is a very gut wrenching court case St Louis Park, MN. A doctor in the hospital system is going to court to replace a patient’s wife, Lana Barnes, with a substitute decision maker, claiming that she is making futile and reckless decisions to prolong her near-vegetative husband’s life.
He has …
The futility of prolonging life and the benefit to patients
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