Author's posts
Balancing stewardship and entitlement in health care
Today’s news is full of commentary about work requirements for Medicaid. Is work a prerequisite for health care or is health a prerequisite for work? Not to complicate things, but can we even agree on what health care is? I don’t think we can, and it largely falls back on what we want to share […]
Both physicians and CEOs need time to think
I’ve always likened the job of a primary care physician to that of a chief executive officer of a small business. Family doctors manage the “business” of delivering and coordinating care for more than a thousand patients at an average cost, in the United States, of $8,500 per year: an $8 to $12 million business. […]
Both physicians and CEOs need time to think
I’ve always likened the job of a primary care physician to that of a chief executive officer of a small business. Family doctors manage the “business” of delivering and coordinating care for more than a thousand patients at an average cost, in the United States, of $8,500 per year: an $8 to $12 million business. […]
The satisfaction of Suboxone treatment
My second foray into Suboxone treatment has evolved in a way I had not expected, but I think I have stumbled onto something profound. Almost six months into our in-house clinic’s existence, I have found myself prescribing and adjusting treatment for about half of my medication-assisted treatment (MAT) patients for co-occurring anxiety, depression, bipolar disease […]
The freedom to admit someone because it was the right thing to do
The most high-powered rotation in my medical school was endocrinology. There, you got to see things most doctors never come close to diagnosing themselves. Uppsala University’s Akademiska Hospital served as a referral center for the Swedish population north of Uppsala, an area the size and shape of California. Back in the seventies, laboratory testing wasn’t […]
How today’s EMRs are like self-driving cars
Drivers are distracted klutzes and computers could obviously do better. Self-driving cars will make all of us safer on he road. Doctors have spotty knowledge and keep illegible records. EMRs with decision support will improve the quality of healthcare. The parallels are obvious. And so far the outcomes are disappointing on both fronts of our […]
The art of medicine is needed to prevent migraine headaches
He spoke with an aura of superiority, in a slightly nasal voice, and his topic was migraines. It was in the late 70s, a time when there were few options to treat migraines. “Most people who claim to have migraines just have simple tension headaches,” he scoffed. And in a move that seemed unorthodox at […]
