John Biemer, a former reporter, is a pathologist.

Remembering the lives lost — and lives saved — in Normandy 75 years ago

Physician
July 23, 2019

Nothing quite prepares you for the American cemetery in Normandy, the final resting place for 9,380 lives cut short in World War II. Even if you’ve seen “Saving Private Ryan,” you can’t help feeling an emotional gut punch, a combination of awe, sadness and respect when you see those simple white marble gravestones on the gently curving hills of Colleville-sur-Mer, stretching as far as you can see.

This June marked the …

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Remembering the lives lost — and lives saved — in Normandy 75 years ago

How running marathons helped prepare me for medical training

Education
February 5, 2017

It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

You often hear this analogy about the medical training process, but, having run a few marathons myself, I think it’s particularly apt. I’m working my way through my fourth and final year of residency now, and I can attest that running marathons was one of the better things that prepared me mentally for the challenges of med school and beyond.

26.2 miles is no trivial …

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How running marathons helped prepare me for medical training

A simple suggestion to doctors: Subscribe to a newspaper

Physician
September 3, 2016

I recently was speaking to two doctors about newspapers. Neither of them subscribed anymore. “Who has time to read the paper?” they agreed. “And any news you need is free online anyway.”

No big news there, right? Plenty of people — in medicine and otherwise — have made similar decisions since the rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s. But what was striking to me is that these were not millennial …

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A simple suggestion to doctors: Subscribe to a newspaper

Justice Scalia: Why didn’t they perform an autopsy?

Conditions
February 23, 2016

With the Supreme Court in the balance, every aspect of the unexpected demise of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has received intense scrutiny, from the cause of his recent death to the politically charged choice of his successor. An autopsy was not performed on the 79-year-old jurist, who was found dead in his room in a West Texas hunting resort, and that too has become a lightning rod for …

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Justice Scalia: Why didn’t they perform an autopsy?

Is it time to update antiquated medical buzzwords?

Physician
November 10, 2015

“What is the term we use to describe the cells that help us diagnose papillary thyroid cancer?” the attending pathologist asked a room full of residents at a noon didactic.

“Orphan Annie Eyes,” they nearly all responded at once.

“And does anyone here know who Orphan Annie was?” he asked next.

It is something memorized by every medical student — the papillary thyroid carcinoma cells with cleared out nuclei are called “Orphan Annie …

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Is it time to update antiquated medical buzzwords?