Category: Oncology/Hematology

An expensive treatment may be a victim of its own widening use

Medical treatment has knocked down tumors in 6-year-old Easton Daniels’ brain, but the drug used also wiped out his immune system. To bolster his immune function and help keep him healthy, he has visited a hospital for intravenous infusions of immune g…

The surgeon who underwent surgery: How being a patient changed him

I lay on my side while my father probed the space between my buttocks, looking for an opening in the incision. I was in bed in the guest room of my house, which had been converted into my room for the last two weeks while I recovered. My father, a surg…

Cancer patients who want to take unproven supplements

One of the most important things we do as physicians is to empower our patients with the knowledge we have so that they can make informed decisions about their care. In oncology, patients also benefit from educating themselves about ways they can try t…

Artificial intelligence in medicine raises legal and ethical concerns

The use of artificial intelligence in medicine is generating great excitement and hope for treatment advances. AI generally refers to computers’ ability to mimic human intelligence and to learn. For example, by using machine learning, scientists are wo…

When patients die, physicians mourn as well

I was driving to work one morning, and as part of my new routine, I listen to The Moth podcast. If you do not know it, it’s a wonderful community of storytellers — compelling stories, told by people from every walk of life. I often find myself dr…

It’s time for AI-enabled solutions in health care to live up to their buzz

Artificial intelligence is incredibly buzzy in health care right now, and for a good reason. Other industries are already experiencing AI-enabled radical transformations, like real-time fraud monitoring and detection in banking and finance and instanta…

The unexpected people who’s listening to your conference speech

Do you ever wonder what the staff in hotel conference rooms think about what we talk about in presentations and lectures? I talk about sensitive stuff — sexuality, fertility, etc. — and I use words that many people have not said out loud in…

The randomness of cancer: bad luck or something else?

Randomness in life is inevitable because the universe is a pretty random place, although the extent to which you believe that depends upon your own value system. This notion comes into play almost every day of my practice in the PICU because many of th…

It’s time we get the technology working for the patients, and not make their lives more difficult

In a world where, in a moment, I can order from thousands of items and have them delivered to my doorstep the same or next day at the press of a button without having to re-enter my name, address, and billing information each time, it would seem that f…

A dermatologist mourns alone

Some may think that being a dermatologist means taking care of the “superficial.” I beg to defer. We spend a great deal of time performing procedures and talking to patients. During our visits, patients share their truth, and open up their hearts to us…