Public Health & Policy

With nearly 80 percent of internet users searching online for health-related information, it’s no wonder the catchphrase “Dr. Google” has caught on, to the delight of many searchers and the dismay of many real doctors.

What’s received little attention from physicians or the public is the company’s quiet metamorphosis into a ...

Read more...

In health care, we enjoy a unique opportunity to create special relationships with our work. Few enter these professions for practical reasons, and fewer still survive rigorous training without genuine belief in what they might accomplish. And cliched though they may be, the many mission statements which purport the "art of caring" do convey something real. But to even for the naïve, spending enough time around health care produces a certain ...

Read more...

In medical school, we learn about Broca’s area, the region of the brain that when injured prevents a person from translating their thoughts into spoken word. When this area is damaged, from a stroke or traumatic injury, the person can hear a partner declare their love or a child cry, but are unable to vocalize a response. Silenced by their injury, their voice is trapped. In a similar way, as medical ...

Read more...

Recently, a child was on a waitlist for five months to get into my practice. For this article, I will call him Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim, now five years old, has a skin condition known as eczema or atopic dermatitis. When we first met, virtuously every area of his body was covered with wounds from constant scratching. Skin that breaks easily and heals poorly can give bacteria access to other parts ...

Read more...

I recently met an old friend of mine for the evening in New York City. He’s a talented young orthopedic surgeon, who has already, in the short amount of time since finishing residency, experienced so many of the problems our health care system faces. The topic of conversation quickly turned to the current state of medical practice, the dramatic swing to corporate medicine, and the consequential loss of autonomy suffered by ...

Read more...

Last year, in response to a continued groundswell of criticism focused on requirements for maintenance of certification (MOC), the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) formed an independent "Vision Commission" on MOC, designed to "reimagine a system of continuing certification." Although led by ABMS board members, many of the 27 commission members are not directly associated with ABMS. After ...

Read more...

As we have moved into the 21st century, we have witnessed a deterioration in our perception of our doctors of medicine. This has been a gradual, eroding process, quite possibly by the design of those in powers of authority in our government, health insurance corporations and the plethora of health care corporations. The assumption might have been to make these changes in the mode of operation gradually so that they ...

Read more...

It’s no secret that physician job dissatisfaction is soaring to unprecedented levels, with over 50 percent of practicing physicians reporting burnout. While many factors have contributed to this epidemic in America over the last 20 years -- not least of all electronic medical records that are taking a heavy (and unacceptable) toll on physicians’ time -- this is not a phenomenon unique to the United States. I went to ...

Read more...

I sat knee-to-knee with a nurse practitioner at a school-based clinic in rural Ohio. Choking back tears, she described a patient she couldn’t get out of her head: a middle-school girl, accompanied by her mother and a social worker. Just days prior, the girl was dropped off at her father’s home for the weekend. Before the promised Friday night football game, she discovered him unconscious on the bathroom floor. Within ...

Read more...