As health care professionals, have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “How am I doing?” A humble doctor once asked my team, “How are you doing on a personal level?” That question stopped me in my tracks. None of us knew how to…
Category: Conditions
5 questions in mental health counseling – and life
Dedicated to my friend and colleague Pat Irving to whom I first told the story. I’m 80 years old and I’ve been writing for over 60 years—first in systems engineering, later in advanced technology, and more recently in public health policy f…
The widow’s walk: a poignant tale of loss, love, and recovery
A widow’s walk, also known as a widow’s watch or roof walk, is a railed rooftop platform often having an inner cupola or turret, frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. The name is said to come from the wives of mari…
To avoid unwanted medical treatment: Choose a bulldog surrogate to fight for you
“Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance.” —Aristotle As an end-of-life (EOL) consultant, one aspect of my job is advance care planning, which involves helping people create an advance directive. An advance directive (AD) has …
Is the surge in adult ADHD diagnoses helping or harming patients?
As an outpatient adult psychiatrist, I have witnessed an increasing trend of patients seeking a diagnosis of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Often, these patients have had friends or family members diagnosed with the condition and …
How AI is transforming breast cancer detection: a game-changing tool for early diagnosis and personalized care
If you had an assistant who helped you do your work faster, more efficiently, and more precisely, would you fear it? With artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront of virtually everything today, two of the most common questions I hear in my daily p…
Hiding in plain sight: the psychosocial burden of vitiligo and importance of clinical research
Imagine waking up one day with a white patch somewhere on your body. It’s not painful or itchy, but over time it grows and changes, with more patches appearing almost daily. In a short space of time, these patches have fundamentally altered the a…
Transform your health care team with these 5-minute communication exercises
An excerpt from The Medical Improv Toolkit: 10 Simple Activities to Promote Safe Care, Healthy Workplaces, & Rewarding Careers! “Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.” ~F…
How to build a healthier diet without overthinking
An excerpt from Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life. The way that different foods (for example, fats), are talked about in the public and online isn’t always scientifically correct. People can have very strong opinions about food, but this doe…
Live longer, die shorter: the surprising health secrets to a vital old age
An excerpt from 21st Century Schizoid Health Care: Essays and Reflections to Keep You Sane on Your Medical Travels. Over a decade ago, a landmark ten-year study by the MacArthur Foundation shattered the stereotypes of aging as a process of slow, geneti…
