One of the toughest parts of treating patients is managing their expectations. We wish that everyone could enjoy a perfect recovery with complete healing, but the medical profession is imperfect and life is unfair. Some folks cruise by decade after decade without a scratch, while others sag under the weight of chronic illnesses.
Accepting reasonable expectations can change the game for patients and their families. If the patient’s expectations exceed what ...
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The medical arena, like society at large, is permeated with self-interest. This reality makes me very skeptical that comparative effectiveness research, which I support, will get airborne. In medicine, every heath care reform, new medicine, new medical device or revised medical guideline is at some constituency’s expense. Recognizing and dismantling conflicts of interests is one of our greatest challenges and threats.
When I ...
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On the morning that I began this post, I read in our local newspaper that Tennessee is soon expected to have a law that would permit public school teachers to offer views on climate change and evolution that are counter to orthodox doctrine on these subjects.
No, I don’t think that creationism is science and it should not be disguised as such. Global warming, or climate change, however, is more nuanced. ...
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My kids know that I enjoy a spirited argument. During the days when the dinner table was our public forum, I tried hard to offer a responsible voice of dissent on the issues before us. I admit now that the view I espoused was not always my own, but one that I felt merited inclusion in the discussion. I still do this with them and to others in my life ...
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I am a physician who writes and I think that more of my colleagues should do so. Not because, we are such skilled wordsmiths or understand plot and characterization. We don’t. But, we confront the human condition every day. We see pain and struggle and fear and rebirth. We have much to share.
Beyond my own profession, I think everyone should write, because everyone has something important to say and to ...
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Am I an apologist for the pharmaceutical companies? I don’t think so, but others may disagree based on some sympathetic Whistleblower posts that have appeared in this blog. It is without question that the drug companies have been demonized and portrayed as rapacious gangs of greed who seek profit over all. Haven’t you come across the pejorative term, Big Pharma? Linguistical note: ...
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Cleveland and northeast Ohio are not hospitable to private practice medicine. I should know. I’m one of them. Private practice is fading as health care reform suffocates it by design. When this occurs, the public will have lost physicians who, in my view, have practiced patient advocacy and service at a higher level than our employed counterparts.
Keep in mind that the first half of my professional career was spent as ...
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Sometimes, I feel like I belong in law enforcement. There was a time in my life that I seriously considered a career where I would haul in the bad guys and make society a better place. Of course, every American male youngster fantasized that he would one day drive the Aston Martin, get the girl, defuse the bomb, and sip on a ...
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I was engaged in one of my pleasures, sitting in a coffee shop leafing through medical journals. Usually, I am perusing newspapers. I spend many hours each week combing through various newspapers and routinely forward items of interest to folks of interest. No newspapers today. I have a few gastroenterology journals to look through. My professional reading habits have evolved over my career. I am more interested in reading about ...
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Which of the following events is most traumatic for a practicing physician?
"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
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
Matthew Moeller, MD | PhysicianA gun owner responds to Sandy Hook
Edwin Leap, MD | PhysicianIs Chris Christie too obese to run for president?
Jeffrey Parks, MD | PhysicianIf I’m wrong about guns, can you please explain why?
Claire McCarthy, MD | PhysicianPrimary care doctors may no longer be needed
Doug Olson, MD | PhysicianWalgreens moves into primary care, and it’s our own damn fault
Kevin Pho, MD | Kevin's Take