Apr
30
The Great Debate
April 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Can’t We All Just Get Along? Moslem and Jew. Windows and Mac. Republican and Democrat. Partisanship and sectarian strife abound but these are nothing, as tame as church picnics, compared to the seething clandestine war being waged in teaching hospitals across the country over whether the house staff should or should not be allowed to [...]
Apr
26
Other Medical Careers Part One: The Most Controversial Article Ever Which Will Cause A Flood of Irate Comments and In Which I Tread Carefully But Obviously Not Carefully Enough
April 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Osteopathic Medicine My mother, who is from Greece, is visiting us and was amazed to hear that our program is a combined osteopathic and allopathic program. She had no idea that chiropractors were used in the Emergency Department. In Europe, you see, osteopaths are not trained medical doctors but confine their practice to manipulation and other alternative therapies. [...]
Apr
25
Pie Will Out
April 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I’m a Doctor, Not a Magician I get accused of being a cynic and a realist, especially by people who are themselves self-proclaimed idealists. Why it is wrong to be a realist or cynical is the topic for another day. But I do actually have an idealistic heart and one that would shame the pretensions [...]
Apr
23
Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There: Part Three
April 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(In which we mostly belabor the obvious.-PB) Mostly Over-doctored How much health insurance do most people need for most of their lives? The answer is none. Most people are fairly healthy and have mostly healthy children who could probably manage to go years between visits to the doctor. When they do go, it is mostly [...]
Apr
20
Random Ramblings
April 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
That Doctor It’s official, I have become “That Doctor.” You know, the guy who told them that their father only had three months to live and here he is, six months later, being wheeled in by his triumphant family. I mean, he looks almost the same as when I saw him the last time, maybe [...]
Apr
19
Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There: Part Two
April 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(Medical care is expensive, no doubt about it, but the remedies proposed by the usual suspects who hope to leverage the problem into political power don’t address the real factors driving up the cost. Maybe I’m just not an excitable fellow but I like to keep a cool head and not get swept up in [...]
Apr
16
Don’t Tell the Spartans
April 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(Many of you are about to start third year and are looking forward to it with feelings of both anticipation and dread. You know that it’s going to be the real start of your medical career where you finally get to see what all the fuss is about. At the same time, despite the propaganda, [...]
Apr
12
Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Jackpot Mentality
April 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Physician Defend Thyself Imagine you are in a rural Emergency Department on a quiet night. The radio crackles. It’s EMS giving a report to the charge nurse. You overhear “snowmobile,” “Loss of consciousness on scene but patient now alert and combative,” “Open fracture of the left femur,” and “Possible ETOH.” The patient arrives and the [...]
Apr
11
Medicine in the Media: More Reviews
April 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Strong Medicine Every now and then my wife and I like to put on our fleece pyjamas and our fuzzy slippers and sit on the sofa with hot cups of herbal tea watching Strong Medicine, an estrogen-charged medical series offered on Lifetime. The show is about a Group of female gynecologists who have somehow managed to [...]
Apr
9
A Letter to an Attending
April 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Who do You Think You Are? Dear Sir or Madame, I am exceedingly glad to be done with the rotation. I have been a resident for almost two years and that month was perhaps the worst experience of my medical career. You made what should have been a moderately unpleasant experience which is what we [...]