Author's posts
Doctors on TV: today vs. 20 years ago
I’ll admit it. I’m a medical-TV junkie, addicted to 21st-century doctor and hospital dramas (most of which are now streaming on Netflix and other services). Although some physicians are bothered by sensationalized depictions of their profession, I appr…
What politicians aren’t telling you about health care
Health care remains the nation’s top voting issue ahead of the 2020 elections, just as it was during the 2018 midterms. Surveys show voters remain frustrated with high drug prices, growing out-of-pocket expenses, and skimpy health-insurance benefits. T…
What can be done to improve our maternal death rate?
Why does the most expensive health care system on the planet do such a poor job protecting the lives of pregnant women? More important, what can be done about it? The United States continues to lead the world in health care spending yet it has the high…
How the changing roles of hospitals are isolating physicians
Physicians nearing the end of their careers often mourn the loss of the hospital as it once was — the undisputed center of the health care universe. They remember a time when every community doctor rounded on patients in the morning, and every su…
Will separating obstetrics from gynecology help specialist burnout?
At the end of a long table covered with hors d’oeuvres and a birthday cake, I struck up a conversation with three primary care physicians. I was hungry for their opinions. Inside the crowded apartment, we spoke for some 20 minutes about the systemic an…
Clinical performance data: a physician’s friend or foe?
According to a recent Harvard report, physician burnout is “a public health crisis that urgently demands action.” Half of all doctors report troubling symptoms: depression, exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and a sense of failure. These physicians are twice…
How technology ruined, and can save, the doctor-patient relationship
Each year, Medical Economics surveys physician readers to find out what irks them most. Topping the latest list: insurance paperwork, followed closely by electronic health records (EHRs). The reason is the same for both. Insurers and EHRs get between d…
Technology is corrupting the culture of medicine
To help then-candidate Bill Clinton remain focused on the No. 1 voter issue ahead of the 1992 presidential elections, political strategist James Carville coined an unforgettable mantra, which he posted inside Clinton campaign headquarters. It read, “Th…
The ethics behind the world’s most expensive medication
With the recent FDA approval, Zolgensma became the world’s most expensive medication. Priced at $2.125 million per patient, the one-dose gene therapy is a potential life-saver for children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Now, the treatment is at th…
Pay people for their kidneys? It’s time.
These are trying times for health care optimists. Despite all the hype surrounding breakthroughs in clinical practice and technology, American medicine is stuck in in neutral. Though the engine is revving loudly, little progress is being made. This unf…
