Reflexively, I often feel my breath catch, and my eyeballs roll ever-so-slightly when a patient leads with, “I saw on the internet …” The precious minutes available to connect, inspect, and direct the management of their Google search are suddenl…
Category: primary care
Why medical writing is essential to medicine
I wasn’t as happy as I expected to be when I walked out of the hospital on my last day in medical school. But then again, there was little to celebrate — my last few patients had terminal cancer, a stroke, and end-stage liver disease from a…
Welcome to the new normal: practices of 500 physicians or more
The day of solo practitioners is coming to an end. In its place will be gaggles of gastroenterologists and flocks of physicians. Mega practices are becoming the norm in American medical care. Here’s a few pictures of this trend, somewhat dated (they on…
Welcome to the new normal: practices of 500 physicians or more
The day of solo practitioners is coming to an end. In its place will be gaggles of gastroenterologists and flocks of physicians. Mega practices are becoming the norm in American medical care. Here’s a few pictures of this trend, somewhat dated (they on…
Welcome to the new normal: practices of 500 physicians or more
The day of solo practitioners is coming to an end. In its place will be gaggles of gastroenterologists and flocks of physicians. Mega practices are becoming the norm in American medical care. Here’s a few pictures of this trend, somewhat dated (they on…
The art of off-label prescribing
Some drugs are used for indications beyond their original FDA approved ones that make complete sense. I mean, if old seizure medications help nerve pain, it might be reasonable to try new ones for the same purpose if everything else fails. Sometimes th…
What to do with disparaging doctors
Doctors who disparage, or even ridicule, what parents tell them are, fortunately, rare. Nevertheless, sometimes parents may infer from what the doctor says or how he acts that he does not value what they are telling him, even though he did not mean to …
Why is it so difficult for Americans to make doctors’ appointments?
Jill Ladkin was already having a terrible autumn. It began with a seizure that put her in the hospital with what seemed like scores of unfamiliar physicians attending to her state of health. The brain scan revealed a mass in the lining of her brain, a …
In the age of EHRs, why are we still asking patients to fill out paper forms?
From the sublime to the ridiculous. That’s sort of how my day went yesterday. It started out with an early morning meeting with a colleague who has been implementing a telehealth program at one of our institution’s practices, learning about…
A key strategy to use for difficult conversations: Ask questions
No matter what profession you are in, having uncomfortable and difficult conversations is something you have to get used to. Tim Ferris said in his bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek (which I’d highly recommend), “A person’s success in life can usua…
