I, along with some others, take Presidents Day as an opportunity to celebrate the lives and contributions of all U.S. presidents. Amid the praise, however, perhaps I alone feel compelled to describe their skeletal maladies. I have gleaned the following…
As we embark upon this new decade, many of us are committed to improving our finances. We may have vowed to stick to a budget or have a general goal to live below our means. While these are noble goals, let’s challenge ourselves to do even more. Here’s…
Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S. According to statistics gathered by the American Cancer Society, approximately 191,930 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in this country in 2020, with on…
Egotism is a common trait among doctors, although most of us keep it under adequate control when dealing with patients. The ideal doctor-parent encounter has been described as a collaboration among equals, each of which brings expertise to the exchange…
My uncle died last year. As physicians, we are all too familiar with death. Even if we are practicing primary care, we are touched by death and the line between life and death. That patient who had what statistically should’ve been acid reflux, but who…
My uncle died last year. As physicians, we are all too familiar with death. Even if we are practicing primary care, we are touched by death and the line between life and death. That patient who had what statistically should’ve been acid reflux, but who…
Karen smiled nervously, her swollen belly peeking out from under her stretched silver tank top. Six months pregnant with her first child, the eighteen-year-old had come to the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) office for help with getting enough to ea…
If you asked me five years ago what my career goals were, I may have said something about getting more grant funding and writing more manuscripts so I could eventually become an independently funded physician-scientist. But honestly, at that time, I ha…
The patient was well over 6 feet tall and looked like he had recently lost weight. When he took off his winter coat and hung it over the back of the chair, I could see his scapulae like wings under his sweater. He folded himself into the chair and care…
Experience and skills are not enough to assure the highest levels of success and sustainability with improvement initiatives in healthcare. The reason this is true has to do with … quicksand. When I was a kid, quicksand seemed to show up in movie…
