Medical education today requires students to assimilate lots of facts and amass an incredible fund of knowledge quickly. As medical science advances, more material must be mastered. Medical students must be able to organize facts and apply them to patient care. Medical care today is becoming more of a team effort. Successful physicians must be adept at both leadership roles and in the role of a team member (worker bee). ...
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Let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert in medical oncology and I have great respect for what my colleagues in this field are able to do for their patients and their families.
From my earliest days of internal medicine training at the University of Virginia, I can remember the oncologists as being some of the most caring and compassionate physicians around. However, recently I came ...
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Social media has opened a whole new world for patients. Now, information about disease is readily accessible and available to everyone. Certainly, there are issues with reliability and accuracy of internet sources and this can create uneasiness and misunderstanding for both physician and patient.
However, the internet can also provide many new therapeutic possibilities. In particular, online support groups, twitter chats and blogging can provide a positive outlet for patients suffering ...
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Medicine is about balancing risk and benefit. Certainly, as healthcare providers, we attempt to provide the best care for our patients based on available evidence. Physicians often are seen as shepherds, helping to guide patients through disease and therapy. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, ultimately medicine will be personalized and tailored to one’s particular genetic make-up. However, the need for a clear discussion of treatment options ...
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Women are undertreated and underserved when it comes to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Now, more than ever, this may even be more important due to several recent studies that have been published recently.
Several investigations have demonstrated two troublesome facts. In certain areas of the country, life expectancy for women is decreasing and women who smoke are much more likely to have lung cancer than men who smoke. These facts argue ...
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The practice of medicine is based on a solid fund of knowledge and a physician’s ability to quickly assimilate and organize information during a patient encounter. However, the process of making a diagnosis and formulating a treatment plan is not always straightforward. Often, what separates the truly exceptional physicians from the rest is the ability to attack problems from alternative angles–more simply put, creativity.
Traditionally, medical education is centered around science. ...
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I can remember making rounds with a seasoned surgical attending in medical school. In typical fashion, surgical rounds were a lot like the military. The “General” (attending physician) at the front, always commanding respect (and often fear) followed by the chief resident, junior residents, interns and finally medical students. Cases were presented, statuses were updated and plans were formulated. Then came the barrage of medical fact questions–mostly directed at the ...
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As healthcare providers we are focused on life. We are committed to healing. We measure success by lives saved. Unfortunately, many diseases remain incurable. Some diagnoses do carry with them a death sentence in spite of the best that modern medicine has to offer. Even in theses extremely devastating cases, We can still make a huge difference in the lives of our patients in the way in which we help ...
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In the satirical novel The House of God, author Samuel Shem writes about experiences as a medical student at Harvard. In the novel, many famous quotations are used that have been passed on from generation after generation of medical students and residents. Some slang terminology is also referenced and characters are created to illustrate the qualities of certain types of students.
One particular student that is found in every medical school ...
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As I have written many times in my previous blogs, it is essential that patients and physicians partner in the management of disease. Outcomes are improved when patients are actively engaged in their own healthcare. Part of engagement involves forming a relationship with a physician through regular follow up visits. Relationships with doctors, just as with friends and spouses, evolve over time. ...
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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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Past 6 Months
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