A connection is lost when we outsource the physical exam

Physician
August 27, 2012

I remember my first visit home at the end of my second year of medical school. I’d just received my black doctor’s bag loaded with medical equipment. Like a 16-year-old with a new driver’s license, begging to do the very errands she’ll soon groan about, I went around my parents’ living room and took everyone’s blood pressure, looked in their ears and throats — and then made my “rounds” again.

While …

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A connection is lost when we outsource the physical exam

How to think like a doctor: Start with differential diagnosis

Conditions
August 17, 2012

“What would you do if you were your doctor?” Mary asked me. Mary is my physical therapist and she was trying to figure out why the rehab after my shoulder surgery was progressing so slowly. A month after my operation I was still in pain and still not moving the joint well.

Without hesitation I replied: “I’d come up with a differential diagnosis.”

Differential diagnosis is a two word summary of how …

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How to think like a doctor: Start with differential diagnosis

As a doctor, I’m going to keep asking about guns

Physician
August 8, 2012

Let’s set aside for the moment the question of whether it’s appropriate to talk about gun control in the wake of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado (though I can’t think of a more appropriate time to talk about it). And let’s not consider whether it makes sense that it’s legal to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition on-line in the U.S, without any background check (though could it, really?) And …

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As a doctor, I’m going to keep asking about guns

Go behind the scenes of naming a drug

Meds
July 30, 2012

One summer in college, when I couldn’t think of what else to do, I lived near campus in a punishingly hot walk up apartment, held down three boring jobs, and took intensive Latin. Every morning we met in a blissfully air-conditioned classroom–that was the upside!– to conjugate and decline: a whole year of Latin in 6 weeks. I remember nothing I learned, of course. I’m reminded of the great Woody …

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Go behind the scenes of naming a drug

The reality of marriage equality and health care

Physician
July 11, 2012

Not long ago I fractured my shoulder and needed surgery. After the operation, my husband of 30 years did all the things a loving spouse would be expected to do: He fluffed my pillows and put toothpaste on my toothbrush (try doing that with one arm!) and overlooked my crankiness.

My husband also helped me in ways so fundamental to our status as a married couple that I barely registered them. …

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The reality of marriage equality and health care

Is a good patient simply one who never complains or disagrees?

Physician
May 31, 2012

I’m currently having a chance to do one of my least favorite things: be a patient. And the whole time, I’m missing no opportunity to declare what a bad patient I am. “I’m sorry I’m such a bad patient,” I said to the phlebotomist when I winced as she drew my blood. “I know I’m a bad patient,” I said to the x-ray technician who re-positioned my fractured arm. “We …

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Is a good patient simply one who never complains or disagrees?

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