“Always remember your humanity. You are not super-human. Make connections to your heart, to your mind, to others. Look closely at the situation that lies before you, listen carefully to all that is around you, and calm the pounding heart. Dig dee…
Category: primary care
Humane health care outcomes by creating therapeutic alliances [PODCAST]
“In fully-humanized health care, I envision patients as clients, with doctors as part of the health care team in a role more akin to expert consultants and skilled proceduralists. The consumer is empowered in the network to drive his or her own h…
To the patient who left a negative physician review
Greetings. I write briefly to inform you I am aware of your Google Review placed nearly a week ago. I’m not upset, but I must say that I am rather surprised by some of the statements. It is germane to the situation when a patient expresses disple…
Stigma and stereotypes have no place in medicine
“He’s not even an MD, Jimmy. He’s a DO. This guy can’t even afford the good letters.” “They’re basically the same, but they’re totally not. MD is Coca-Cola. DO is RC Cola.” “A DO is like an of…
An American doctor in Rome [PODCAST]
“The idea was to try working in Rome for a year and see how it went. This sensible American plan collapsed under the weight of Italian bureaucracy. Luckily I didn’t investigate every angle before starting off; if I had known the true lay of the l…
The doctor is knitting
I gleefully rang in 2021, happy to leave 2020 and its troubles behind. However, the promise of the new year did not bring the end of the pandemic or its pressures. As I write this, I am perched on the precipice of another uncertain school year for my…
The art and uncertainty of triage
Last week, I became involved in two situations of pain between the eyes that seemed to potentially be presentations of very serious medical conditions. Autumn took a call from her sister late on Friday afternoon. Her sister had been tested for COVID th…
A physician family’s adoption journey
A few years ago, a Chicago-area fertility clinic ran a series of radio ads at the same early hour each morning. For weeks, I woke to a woman’s energetic voice cutting through the fog of my semiconsciousness, announcing her gratitude to the center’s rep…
Laocoön and His Sons: suffering of those who care for those who suffer
Arguably one of the most famous statues of Western civilization is of the Laocoon group, made between the second century B.C. and the first century A.D, and discovered and excavated in Rome in 1506. Michelangelo himself was supposedly one of the first …
Primary care: the variety and the intimacy of the problems I see [PODCAST]
“Fifteen minutes for a checkup or urgent problem, thirty minutes for a physical. In the tiny gasps of time in between: Refilling scripts, checking labs, and signing medical supply orders and insurance authorization requests. Maybe lunch. Maybe a …
