The highly charged political debates about reforming American health care have provided tempting opportunities to rename the people who receive health services. But because the impetus for this change has been prompted by cost and quality concerns of health care payers, researchers and policy experts rather than emanating from us out of our own needs, some odd words have been called into service. Two phrases commonly used to describe us ...
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I empathize with people who don’t take an active role in their health care decisions. There are real barriers to any of us really getting engaged: limited information about price and quality, a perpetuated culture of “doctor knows best,” and a daunting and confusing set of rules about coverage. Who wants to think about it?
There are only so many minutes in the day or neurons in the brain. So, we ...
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For the past fifteen years, I have had an incurable form of leukemia.
Such diseases used to be called terminal illnesses, but we don't hear that term as much anymore. With all the new drugs and treatments available, doctors have become more reluctant to refer to diseases they can't cure yet as "terminal."
In the years just after my diagnosis, when friends and family would ask what could be done for it, ...
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Don't get me wrong, it's huge to see patient safety evolving to be a front-burner issue. After beating the drum for years, the National Patient Safety Foundation and other groups are seeing progress, with meaningful use, electronic health records, pay for performance, and the patient-centered medical home.
Medicare innovation grants and the Partnership for Patients are chipping away at medical harm and 30 day readmissions. Empowered patients are test-driving their choices ...
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When I recently read the phrase, “I’m embarrassed to be sick,” it made my stomach clench and my breath catch. That's exactly what I've been feeling: this vague sense of social unease even with close friends, a reluctance to be seen or even talk to people--especially those that knew me before I became chronically ill.
At the age of 55, after a lifetime of seemingly ...
“Have you ever been told you have a heart murmur?” a young doctor gently asked my friend, Ben. Ben’s mind reeled. Ben was in his early 30s, relatively young and healthy. But his father had died from a heart attack before age 50. And his mother had a heart problem. What did this question signal for him, he worried.
“Um, ah, no, I haven’t,” ...
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As doctors, we’re typically compensated for the work we do, not the hours we spend. Our jobs are structured so that we’re taxed for time, making even the most routine office visit feel like a race against the clock. Trying to develop a long-term strategy with a patient in this context is not time-efficient. It is, in fact, incredibly frustrating.
Yet medicine is a team effort, and we understand that we’re ...
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We in the press are accustomed to PR folks “advising” us of all the good things that hospitals do. They open new pavilions named for wealthy benefactors of new cancer and heart centers and children’s care, with media coverage of the ribbon-cutting ceremonies attended by famous faces. They buy big new machines that smash and diagnose illness and want the world to know about that, too.
But a press release that ...
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As an employee of the ABIM Foundation, I’ve batted around the phrase “medical professionalism” for several years but it didn’t really hit home for me until I encountered it – and the lack thereof – as a patient.
Over the past six months, I’ve logged a few miles in the frequent patient program. I underwent a 13-hour craniotomy to resect a meningioma and woke up from surgery with nerve ...
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Growing up, I am sure you heard many “why” questions, such as: “Why is your room so messy?” and “Why didn’t you eat your vegetables?” I am quite certain those questions made you feel defensive. Patients also feel defensive when we ask them ”why” questions. In other words, “why” questions set people off. These types of questions can turn a usually-friendly patient into an angry nightmare.
Here is an example. Your ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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