We are often pulled in different, opposing directions, and take time to find the balance between acceptance and anger, surrender and control, individual and group, being and thinking, living and dying. How we find balance and what that balance is influences our attitude.Throughout my journey, I was struck by a number of dichotomies, or dualities, as I reflected on my reactions ...
As a patient, you're entitled to ask your health care providers anything. In that sense, there are no bad questions.
But some questions will help you get more out of your interaction with your health care providers than others. This advice comes from my experience as a medical oncologist and a cancer survivor.
Before asking your questions, remember that you're dealing with a ...
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Recently, I spent some time answering the questions on one of those CAHPS surveys for doctors. CAHPS stands for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, and these days hospitals ask patients to use them to review not only their hospital experience but their experience with their doctors as well.
Many public hospital ratings use data collected from CAHPS hospital experience surveys, but patients rarely have much access to ...
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Each of us wears many different “hats” throughout the course of the day. We are an employee, a wife, a father, a club member, a consumer and so on. It comes as no surprise that our thinking, what we say, and how we say it at any particular time coincides with the hat we are wearing at that moment. The thing about these “hats” or roles is that they come ...
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For years I've been asked the same question: "How can you work in hospice and be around death everyday?" As if death, like this year's flu, were something we could all just avoid so long as we stay away from it. This question, however, takes on a bit of a different form this time of year as people's thoughts are centered much more around family. The question becomes more of ...
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On November 17th, I celebrated the three-year anniversary of the end of my leukemia relapse treatment. In going through the day, I thought a lot about what I went through. I thought a lot about how I ever survived it all. I remember so vividly those hopeless moments, hours, days, months of nausea, pain, and so many forms of discomfort. What stands out to me was the hopelessness and ...
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I would like to start out by thanking all the fantastic health care workers. As a recovering person with diagnosed concurrent disorders – having both addictions and mental health issues – I have seen the challenges and abuse often faced by doctors, nurses, counselors and support staff working within the healthcare system. This article is in no way meant to hurt, ...
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Recently, while reading a post in an online chat group for people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), I spotted an intriguing comment. At an important conference, a world-renowned hematologist had referred to a "five-year timeline" for a cure.
This took me back fourteen years, to when I'd just been diagnosed with CLL. There was a Gilda's Club near my workplace; I'd always passed it quickly on my way home. Now I ...
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One of the greatest risks I faced from surgery to repair a macular hole in my eye was from a hospital acquired infection. But when I tried to find data on the performance of various hospitals in New York City, there were no ratings for Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat where I would have my surgery. My doctor had moved from a prestigious New York City hospital to Manhattan Eye, ...
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It’s no surprise that Americans are tilting the scales in the wrong direction. We are straining our waistlines and health coverage beyond the limits.
Unfortunately we live in a culture that promotes it.
Recently, I tuned into my favorite TV food channel to watch famous chefs create exotic dishes with quail eggs and artichokes. Instead I tapped into back-to-back shows that claimed to represent American food. The hosts were a well-known southern ...
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-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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