“Welcome to our clinic. May we take your order?” Many patients have Googled, Yahoo’ed or Bing’ed their symptoms way before I even lay eyes on them in an examining room. And they have a schema of what they’ll be getting out of the visit. If …
Category: primary care
My garden has taught me a lot about health care
Sustainability is a bit of a buzz word these days. To be sustainable means that you only use what you need, leaving the rest to be used by you or others in the future. Sustainability is a popular topic in environmental sciences and refers to renewable …
Must-have medical apps for primary care
Earlier this year, we put together a list of what we thought were the best medical apps for health care providers. Now at the end of 2018, we’re augmenting that list to give you a full picture of what we think are must-haves medical apps for those in p…
Getting old ain’t for sissies
These days we are talking more about advanced directives and living wills in health care. This is progress, but as a member of the sandwich generation, I am focused on the aging process. I don’t have kids, but I have parents and have the honor of watch…
A rare condition that often happens to people with very poor eyesight
I have known him for over thirty years. He has been legally blind for the past five. He tends to be a practical, no-nonsense man. The other day, he seemed restless and very concerned as he lowered his voice and said: “I don’t want you to come to the co…
Why doesn’t the allied health field play a larger role in the care of patients?
The Association of Schools of Allied Health Professionals defines the allied health sector as “professionals that are involved with the delivery of health or related services pertaining to the identification, evaluation, and prevention of diseases and …
The old days of medicine are gone
In the last decade, specifically in the last five to six years, we have seen the gradual disempowerment of America’s physicians as well as their unfortunate patients. Starting with health management organizations, managed care, all the way to the insur…
A call for the end of routine opioid use after wisdom tooth removal
We are writing as a parent and a dentist to spread a message to parents and dental health care providers across Canada: there are alternatives to prescribing opioids after wisdom tooth removal. Removing wisdom teeth is considered by many as a rite of p…
The elderly couple who bought vitamins at the grocery store
I recently stopped by our local grocery store after work to pick up a handful of items to bring home. With only four items in hand, I luckily found a short checkout line behind this lovely elderly couple who were almost done and ready to pay. As they s…
A physician’s New Year’s resolutions
2019 is here. I started my year by doing an urgent care shift on New Year’s day. It was not quite as busy as I expected; most of the shifts I’ve done around the holidays were high-volume, with lots of flu, other respiratory infections, and…
