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Sad News About My Friend With Colon Cancer

My dear friend Seton Holt passed away on Christmas eve. She was 42 years old, and surrounded by family at home. I wrote about Seton’s battle with cancer – and how she faced adversity with an inspirational courage.*

When you lose someone you immediately wish you’d had the chance for one last conversation – to make sure they knew how much you loved them, and what they meant in your life. I didn’t have that final conversation with Seton, but I suspect that she knew how I felt.

Seton was a devout Catholic. She leaves behind a nearly two-year-old son, Damian, her husband David, and a large loving extended family.

I’ll be attending her wake tomorrow. May she rest in peace.

*These are some of my previous posts about Seton:

Cancer Isn’t Fair

Unencumbered By Prognosis

Strawberry Shortcake In Central Park

The Lucky One


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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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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