When Angelina Jolie announced that she'd undergone a bilateral mastectomy to prevent the breast cancer for which a genetic mutation puts her at high risk, I found myself, as a doctor and as a woman, full of admiration and gratitude for her... and also, in retrospect, for Betty Ford.
In a single New York Times op-ed piece, Ms. Jolie used her celebrity ...
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Here's a joke I love: A man goes to an old-school psychiatrist who, at the first session, administers some Rorschach tests.
"Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind," the doctor instructs the patient as he shows him the ink blots.
"Sex," answers the patient.
"I see," says the doctor. "And this one?"
"Sex."
"And this one?"
"Sex again."
"Well," says the doctor, "I see we will have to work on your obsession with sex."
"Me??" ...
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When I was growing up in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, there was always some smart aleck boy on the playground who had "facts" to share about the Soviets. His recitation was meant to emphasize how weird, how different, how other our arch enemies were. "They make you wear all brown and gray there." "They eat only boiled cabbage and potatoes." "They tell you what to ...
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One of the things about which I'm asked most commonly is calcium. Some of the confusion comes from the fact that our knowledge about calcium and health is evolving. A recent study showing that men who take calcium supplements have an increased risk of heart attacks is just the latest in an avalanche of sometimes conflicting information.
Here are a few of the questions I am most often asked ...
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Not long ago I noted a certain older patient's name on my schedule. I really dreaded seeing her. It's not that I dislike her--in fact she's one of my favorite patients. It was just that I hated the prospect of seeing her looking as poorly as I knew she would. She'd been through so much: an accident resulting in devastating injuries followed by painful surgeries, and, worst, in the middle ...
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There's this weird feeling I get when I hear bad news, or even not that bad news, or even the possibility of bad news: a tingling that spreads across my forehead, down my face, into my jaw, and then to my chest, where it settles like a...no, not a lump...a void. I get the feeling every time I go for my annual mammogram or any other medical test, I wonder ...
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A psychiatric colleague once told me that the incidence of anxiety disorders went down drastically during the blitz, when London was under constant siege by German bombs in 1940-1941. I don't know whether this is true, or even how you could measure such a thing under those conditions--but it makes sense to me. The patients I saw at Massachusetts General Hospital the day after the terrorist attacks just two miles ...
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When I entered the exam room I found my patient, a woman in her 80s who'd come in for a routine visit, holding a photograph. "I need to show you something," she said. Some patients bring me photos at every visit--usually their kids' or grandkids' annual school pictures, or smartphone shots of a wedding or christening--but she never had before. I wondered what it might be.
She laid the photo on ...
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In an excellent recent cover article in the Boston Globe Magazine, Darshak Sanghavi explored a fascinating phenomenon: patients are less likely to sue doctors who admit they've made a mistake, particularly if they apologize for their errors. Innovative programs, such as one at the University of Michigan, encourage physicians to reveal their mistakes to patients, express remorse, and offer compensation to patients who may have been ...
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Mention the term "surgeon general" to anyone over 35 or so and they won't think of the doctor who currently holds that position (that's Regina Benjamin, who some have felt has not spoken or acted forcefully enough about threats to our nation's health). Nor will they think of the surgeon general who released the famous 1964 ...
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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
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