“Government officials, regardless of political affiliation, should seek sound medical advice before communicating with their constituents. Appropriate public health information should be shared so that constituents are not harmed by following mis…
Category: Public Health & Policy
Health care from the trenches: Change must come from us
A patient came to see me with terrible shoulder pain, which I suspected was caused by an acute rotator cuff tear. As any good orthopedic surgeon would, I ordered an MRI. My radiology tech, however, was not permitted by Medicare to perform the study. No…
Health care from the trenches: Change must come from us
A patient came to see me with terrible shoulder pain, which I suspected was caused by an acute rotator cuff tear. As any good orthopedic surgeon would, I ordered an MRI. My radiology tech, however, was not permitted by Medicare to perform the study. No…
Why socialized health care is not right for America
I have been a doctor for twenty years, but I’m also a patient. We are all patients. This summer, my previously mild heart rhythm problem got a lot worse. By July, I was having frequent episodes of heart rates four times normal, causing me to almost los…
America needs to invest in proactive patient outreach now
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced multiple new threats for physical and mental health. The novel coronavirus itself continues to infect more than 30,000 Americans as we enter the influenza season. The pandemic, economic devastation, and racial recko…
How the health care system fails to match its hype
No player received as much media-generated attention heading into Super Bowl LIV as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. All eyes were on him and, when it mattered most, the young signal-caller came through, bringing his team back from a 10-…
What we define as “right” in primary care matters
“Your numbers are horrible!” I was a resident physician in internal medicine seeing patients in primary care clinic. These words, from an attending physician, were meant as off-the-cuff feedback, and their impact surprised me. I suddenly felt exhausted…
Why science matters this election year
I grew up loving politics. At age 11, I watched my mom run for and win a city commissioner position in our small town in Ohio. In 7th grade, I wrote Ronald Reagan a detailed letter with my solution for lowering the national debt. In high school, I was …
The detrimental effect on patients of an insurance company slashing its fee schedule
In these tumultuous times, it’s hard to find common ground. But I believe we can all agree on one thing: Health care heroes deserve our support. Physicians have spent the last several months working tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some w…
Talking politics in the exam room
I walked into my exam room to see a patient I first met two decades ago. His medical problems included poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and a substance abuse disorder. Over the years, our health care system has served him well …
