Author's posts
On being a doctor and an advocate
I opened my internal medicine practice almost four decades ago to serve a growing urban community. I gravitated toward the underserved geriatric population as they were vulnerable patients and eventually moved into the bygone realm of house calls for h…
Telemedicine’s impact on lifespan and cancer eradication
Forty years ago when I first started in medicine, there were no CT scans or MRIs. In the next forty years, I foresee cancer as an illness of the past, and life expectancy will be over one hundred years old. Scientific advancements will push medicine ah…
Nursing homes: How they impact the dignity of older adults
Call it what you want: nursing home, skilled nursing facility, rehab center, convalescent home, or post-acute care. They are all the same and a common destination should you survive a recent hospitalization. But they all have an existing reputation and…
Unmasking the profit-driven influence on American health care decisions
The practice of medicine has been significantly enhanced by advancing technology. However, even with four years of medical school and an MD degree, this only provides the foundation for what is needed to be a good doctor. A critically important skill i…
Holocaust survivor’s hidden past: a doctor’s discovery
As a medical doctor, I have peered into the lives of many patients who have unique experiences. When I started practice 40 years ago, some of my patients had parents who lived during the Civil War; a few fought in the Spanish-American War, and more rec…
The fusion of fMRI and polygraph tech
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and I attended Los Angeles High School, separated by 15 years. He once spoke there and quelled the rumor that he failed English: “I got a C!” His writings extend beyond the realm of reality into a dimensi…
The future of medicine: Advancements and greed collide
In the future, I foresee a world without pandemics, cancer becoming a thing of the past, and advancements that enable bionic adaptations to our bodies, leading to a life expectancy of easily over one hundred years. While some of these advancements may …
How observing patients’ walks can reveal hidden ailments
On the first day of class, one of my medical school professors limped in, stopped, and then proceeded to teach us specifically what ailment a patient has that causes their limp. He went on to explain, “By the time you finish this didactic course …
“Is your surgeon really skilled? The hidden threat to public safety in medicine.
There is an underbelly to every profession, and medicine is no different. We know physicians are the “best and the brightest,” yet there is a secret lurking in hospitals, clinics, and academic institutes that poses a threat to public safety…
Next of kin in the medical decision making process
Four years ago, as chairman of the hospital ethics committee, I was asked to convene an emergency meeting brought by a distraught family as medical decisions had to be made for their ill loved one. The hospital, HMO lawyers, the family, three adult chi…
