J. Edward Les is a pediatric emergency physician.

 

It’s not your heart that’s failing. It’s our medical jargon.

Physician
April 16, 2022

A little over two years ago, my elderly mother was admitted to the hospital. Almost 90, she’d been short of breath for days — uncomfortable, perspiring, unable to sleep properly.

Blood tests, a chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram followed, whereupon her doctor pronounced: “You have congestive heart failure, Mrs. Les.”

I arrived on the scene the next morning to find her lying in bed, iPad open to Dr. Google, earnestly exploring the …

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It’s not your heart that’s failing. It’s our medical jargon.

Are virtual doctors actually useful?

Conditions
September 9, 2020

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
– Steve Jobs

I was rusty.

I felt rusty, at least.

It had been forever, seemingly, since I attended patients as an emergency physician.

A couple of years earlier, I’d been sailing along happily in my clinical career when a cancer diagnosis blew in like a hurricane, shredding my sails and dumping me into a sea of medical and …

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Are virtual doctors actually useful?

As a doctor with cancer, I have opinions on opinions

Physician
February 6, 2018

The modern news cycle’s obsession with all things Trump has moved light years beyond dispiriting with cacophonous reams of vitriol shoveled endlessly back and forth.

One could opt out, I suppose, and simply take an elongated holiday from all things media-related. But like moths drawn to a flame, we can’t seem to help ourselves, and your humble scribe is no exception.

And so, I took note last week of Andrew Coyne’s ruminations …

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As a doctor with cancer, I have opinions on opinions