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The Dirt On Doctors

bathtub I was hesitant to post this photo because it is an image of my girlfriend’s bathtub in New York City. I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to post this, but I figure it’s ok because I didn’t reveal her identity and also, she doesn’t read my blog.

My girlfriend is a physician. She is friendly and smart and well-groomed. Her bathroom, on the other hand, is pretty scary. It’s not unlike other bathrooms I’ve seen in New York – which means this could be partially a cultural phenomenon. She knows it needs cleaning – I guess.

She invited me to stay at her place during a recent visit – instead of a hotel – and I gladly accepted. We planned to have a nice dinner and drinks out on the town. She showed me to my room and casually mentioned that she needed to get some Draino for the bathroom. I wondered what exactly that might mean, and was surprised by her use of understatement in this case. Read more »

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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