A computer algorithm learning how to play StarCraft like a champ may raise some eyebrows, but when algorithms start to give the skills of a trained physician a run, job security becomes a futile construct. An algorithm now diagnoses melanoma as well as a dermatologist: A consolation for the dermatologists, though: Folks across the hallway — the radiologists and the pathologists — are feeling the heat as well. …
Retooling the future physician
That was Virginia’s second visit to the hospital in the ten days of the new year. It also ended up being the last.
Virginia was a patient we all knew. She came to the hospital frequently. The aphorism of our intern year was, if you had not taken care of Virginia once, you were not going to graduate out of internship. And that was hardly an exaggeration- almost no one in …
A patient who’s the very reflection of our healthcare system
It is no news a lot of doctors like to stick up a rather snotty nose to EMR. The defenders of the EMR tend to label such doctors as archetypal Luddites, sticking to their archaic ways and unbecoming of change and the new times. But as is usually the case with any two heated but opposite arguments, the truth likely lies …
Explaining the epic failure of EMRs
The New York Times recently did an expose on hospital overbilling by a group of cardiologists at some hospitals owned by the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Immediately after a few days, a rather gloating article about how HCA had become the poster boy of Wall Street with its double digit growth strategy appeared. If the first story had not raised enough doubt about the prudence of …
Why healthcare is a boon for private equity
Primary care is ever the Cinderella-esque tragedy. Ever so maligned, ever engulfed in misery and never really the belle of the ball like she rightfully deserves to be. There may be reasons galore to this. Not least of which is the way primary care work is perceived in this country.
Let me illustrate.
The primary care attending I work with recounted a story from the early 2000s. As is usually the case with visits …
The cerebral work done by a primary care physician should be valued
My patient ran away from the hospital.
This ordinarily is almost common place for a hospital bordering the south side of Chicago. In the last two years at the hospital, I had first grown surprised, and then helpless and finally weary to such mysterious absconding. This time however, it struck a chord.
Long before Mr B ran away, I had an inkling the new diagnosis of HIV would be difficult for him …
Why my patient ran away from the hospital
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