Author's posts
What Adam Smith would say about America’s for-profit health care
Over 80 percent of people are discontented with their medical insurance, whether provided by the government, their employer, or a commercial company. Common complaints are cost, increasing prices, and limited or rejected coverage. Regardless of the ins…
Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails
In numerous writings and venues regarding physician practice, the claim is made that “physician education is lacking in nutrition, geriatrics, care for non-cisgender people, relating to patients in general, cultural respect, equitable treatment, …
How corporate greed and politics are destroying health care
In past decades, physicians practiced medicine. The majority were dedicated to patient well-being. They were paternalistic and decided what was in their patients’ best interests, and patients generally trusted their judgments. In the 1970s, ethic…
Patient choice vs. patient life: Which is the greater good?
In a 2023 study, researchers explored the medical needs of elderly, mentally deficient individuals who lived alone. A common comment by interviewed physicians was that they knew some patients required greater supervision or care, but they acceded to pa…
How unclaimed bodies are fueling a medical ethics firestorm
Last September, NBC News aired a one-sided report on the arrangement between a county coroner and a medical school apropos the transfer of unclaimed corpses with reportedly inadequate effort to find family. In addition to a grieving family, an academic…
Are new blood tests for Alzheimer’s and cancer worth the hype?
Recently, consumer articles heralded that blood tests for detecting Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) and many cancers were close to clinical availability. Given the narrow window in which AD must be diagnosed for present treatments to be effective, and …
PTSD: Why trauma’s impact is more complex than you think
According to the National Institutes of Health, the majority of individuals experience several traumatic events in their lifetimes, but do they all develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? If you question the general populace or the media, they w…
