I received this press release and was depressed by the prevalence of lawsuits filed against doctors in this country. More than 40% of physicians are sued at some point in their careers, and the vast majority of these suits are found to be meritless. If that doesn’t make you want to quit practicing medicine, I don’t know what does.
This kind of litigious climate definitely adds to my stress levels — and makes me fearful of caring for very sick and fragile patients who are likely to have poor outcomes, regardless of what I do. Many of my colleagues practice medicine with one eye always looking over their shoulder, wondering when that one bad apple will take them to court in an attempt at a financial windfall.
In Canada, those who bring frivolous lawsuits to court are responsible for all legal costs. Read more »
Did you know that physical activity can reduce your risk for memory loss and dementia? I had the chance to speak to ABC’s Let’s Talk Live team about important lifestyle choices that can keep the mind healthy and active. The good news is that you really can teach an old dog new tricks, and those new tricks can stimulate growth of new brain cells. Watch the video and check out the Alzheimer’s Association website for more information about dementia prevention:
Occam’s razor is a well-known logical principle often applied in medicine. It states that the simplest explanation for a complaint or symptom is usually the correct one. Most of the time, Occam’s razor serves the diagnostician well, but when the actual problem is complex or unexpected, patients can be sent down expensive and even life-threatening diagnostic rabbit holes.
A friend of mine is an 80-pack-a-year smoker. He was complaining of shortness of breath, worsening over a couple of months, and his primary care physician sent him to a pulmonologist. The assumption was that the shortness of breath was related to COPD from his chronic smoking — and that indeed would have been the most likely explanation. Read more »
I had the distinct pleasure of reading Stroke Diaries this past week. Its author, Dr. Olajide Williams, is a dear friend and contributor to this blog. I first met Dr. Willliams (or Jide, pronounced “gee-day”) as a young neurology resident at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. I was in my third year of medical school and rotating through the neurology service.
A few things struck me about Jide back then. First, he was the only resident who never got an answer wrong when put on the spot (aka “pimped”) by his superiors. I was in awe of his knowledge base — something he’d developed by disciplining himself to do additional reading long after his peers were asleep.
Second, Jide was always immaculately dressed — his stylish, brightly-colored shirts and ties complimented his dark skin and cheerful, British accent.
And third, his love for his patients and medical students was abundantly clear, as he always went out of his way to educate them in the most friendly and sensitive of ways. In short, Jide was an inspiration to me — as a teacher, a neurologist, and a friend.
Stroke Diaries is a reflection of Jide’s character — a perfect blend of poetic vignette and straightforward science. This short book (130 pages) chronicles the true life stories of various patients who’ve suffered strokes. Read more »
I was invited to speak at the National Library of Medicine’s 2010 Annual Conference. Today I heard fellow speaker Uwe Reinhardt, Ph.D., discuss healthcare economics, and although his presentation was entertaining, as a physician I found it to be rather disturbing.
On the one hand I understand Reinhardt’s desire to engage Americans in a rational conversation about limited healthcare resources. My friend Dr. Rich Fogoros has been calling for this for many years. Yet, I was disappointed by his enthusiastic reductionism — that peoples’ lives should be reduced to a mere societal cost equation. He also said that, “When America grows up, it will look a lot more like Europe,” and cited a conversation with Dr. Phil Gingrey as an example of the congressman’s over-valuing human life. Read more »
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
I received this press release and was depressed by the prevalence of lawsuits filed against doctors in this country. More than 40% of physicians are sued at some point in their careers, and the vast majority of these suits are found to be meritless. If that doesn’t make you want to quit practicing medicine, I don’t know what does.
