When I graduated from residency, I was too worried about killing my first few patients to examine the meaning of being an attending physician. An early patient, a 97-year-old retired doc, brought it to my attention. “Being an attending physician means …
As we approach Christmas, you only need to go to the nearest mall to witness the frenzied activity in preparation. People scurry around trying to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones and co-workers at the lowest prices. While gift-giving indeed …
So many primary care patients have several multifaceted problems these days, and the more or less unspoken expectation is that we must touch on everything in every visit. I often do the opposite. It’s not that I don’t pack a lot into each visit. I do, …
It’s difficult to imagine a world now without Google and the internet. It’s also strange to think that most people alive right now received the bulk of their education in the pre-internet era. I remember in the United Kingdom, where I went to medical s…
One of my favorite scenes in the recent Apollo 11 IMAX film was a dramatic panning shot of mission control moments before lift-off. Row after row of mission specialists, engineers, astronauts, communications technicians — all looking ahead in silent, u…
Whenever I give a talk about health care, I ask the audience, “What is the worst addiction problem we have in the United States?” The answers are typically the same, and all are good guesses — alcohol, tobacco, opiates, and sugar are most frequently ci…
Next in a series. I have developed a framework, which I call the Healthcare Incentives Framework, that helps me understand health care systems. It outlines the jobs we expect a health care system to do for us and identifies which parties in the health …
In the history of medical care, medical records served one purpose and two masters: to record diagnosis and treatment for physicians to refer to and for patients to use to transfer care when they desired. The medical record was a simple 3 x 5 or ledger…
Doctors need to be true to themselves, but at the same time, they must be chameleons. A doctor fills certain roles in the lives and stories of patients. It is a two-way relationship that looks different to each person we serve throughout every workday …
The doctor shortage across the United States is coming and has the potential to be painful to millions of Americans. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2023, the country may experience a deficit of up to nearly 122,000 physic…
