Looking back, some of my biggest medical mistakes have been times when I was reactive rather than proactive when faced with a clinical problem. A doctor may have to be one or the other depending on the circumstances, but knowing when and which approach to take is one of the harder skills of medicine, taking time and experience to master.
What do I mean? Here are some examples from my field.
Treating …
I’m both interested in and disturbed by what some doctors have said to patients at the first consultation for tinnitus, an annoying perception of sound that comes from somewhere within their heads. Not many of these patients are referred to me – most come of their own accord for a second opinion. What they tell me their doctor said is a lesson in how not to communicate with patients, and …
The rise of the e-Patient movement has the potential to change the practice of medicine, in my opinion, for the better. e-Patients demand to be taken seriously, to be “equipped, enabled, empowered, engaged, equals, and emancipated.”
My recent post on KevinMD.com suggested the need for e-Doctors as well, in response to the growth of the e-Patient movement.
So how do you become an e-Doctor? I believe you, and I, need to be equally …
As an e-Doctor, one with some IT literacy, I welcome the e-Patient movement.
I think patients should be equipped, enabled, empowered, engaged, equals, and emancipated, as Wikipedia explains. The link also adds “and experts” and here I have a problem, not because I don’t think patients should have access to knowledge or know a lot about their own disease, but because knowing one pattern of pathology, i.e. your own, does not make you an expert.
No more …
Perhaps the most important principle in practicing medicine, drummed into medical students and junior doctors time and time again, is to do no harm. Our medical interventions and treatments can be given either too early, too late, or inappropriately, with sometimes terrible and tragic results.
Unfortunately, when doctors have harmed patients, the guidelines of what to do thereafter are not as clear, raising the question, “What should doctors do in these …
As a young medical student I remember the arrival of the first video arcade games very clearly: Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pacman.
I spent whatever spare cash I had on them, never playing long enough to be any good, or rich enough to get any better. When I bought my first computer in my late-twenties, I relived my excitement with the newest computer games, spending a disproportionate amount of time long …
I recently was involved in a web discussion on elective choices with a group of medical students.
Financial considerations aside, I was surprised how few were interested in visiting third world countries to see how medicine is practiced outside the first world comfort zone of unlimited expertise, investigation and therapy — where “want” often exceeds “need.”
The third world however is completely different. It’s an environment where doctors and nurses are in …
Blogging is a great way to get things into an open forum for discussion. But I still have nagging doubts about doctors who post blogs or replies about healthcare issues without giving their names.
As a new blogger, I often look at those replies to my postings that are anonymous and think, “Who are you? Why do you think the way you do? Why will you not put a name and …
Early in my training as a glider pilot my instructor showed me an excellent but simple analogy for ensuring my safe performance as a pilot. I have always remembered this lesson, which he called the ‘accident slope’, and have tried to apply it to my method of practicing medicine, as well as the other ‘dangerous’ activities for which I have an affinity.
“Accidents and mistakes are seldom the result of one …
As I explore the latest EMR offerings, and read all the blogs and media releases for and against EMRs, I am forced to wonder, “Has anybody ever asked us doctors what we either want or need?”
Too often it seems the requirements of EMR’s are more suited to organizations, systems, and number-crunchers than to either doctors or our patients. I understand that the data is important, but why should the adaptation …
The rapid advance in digital video and still camera technology has found its way into the operating room.
There is the potential to capture and record just about every minute of every surgical procedure in some way. The newest endoscopic camera systems and operating microscopes have integrated systems to record video footage. Storing all that data is just the press of a button away.
The advantages for surgeons are obvious, like the …
The doctor-patient relationship must remain the central focus of good health care. Diminish or hinder that relationship, and no technological advance, funding system, or government intervention in the world will be able to compensate. Many complaints about present health care systems can be seen as evidence of relationship dysfunction, not in the least due to the interference of third parties, administrators, payers and insurers, who wield the financial clout. Transparency …
As an outside observer of the American health reform debate, I cannot help but notice the disparity of views, the fractured arguments, the protectionism and desperation. My country is in a similar struggle for health care reform, with the main difference being America is a rich nation, and we are poor by comparison. In both debates, however, I have looked for the humanitarian argument, and in many cases found it …
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