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After a while my oncologist stepped out into the waiting area and guided me to the hall by her office. “The cells are low,” she said. “We’ll have to wait another week, that’s all.” I knew she was right. But a week seemed like a lifetime to me then.… See more A Visit With My Oncologist cancer treatment | Communication | Empowered Patient | health care costs | Life as a Doctor | Medical Ethics | Palliative Care | Patient Autonomy | Patient-Doctor Relationship
It was sometime in April, 1988. I was putting a line in an old man with end-stage kidney disease, cancer (maybe), heart failure, bacteria in his blood and no consciousness. Prince was on the radio, loud, by his bedside. If you could call it that – the uncomfortable, curtained compartment didn’t seem like a good place for resting. See more How to Avoid Death in the ICU January, the coldest season in my vicinity, turns out to be National Blood Donor Month. This designation, a legacy of the Nixon administration (Proclamation 3952, Dec 31, 1969), I learned last week. Besides, blood’s hot. See more Blood Matters For a patient to “own” her body in the context of modern medicine requires that she engage, very actively, in decisions. The question, then, is how she might find the information she needs to choose among treatments (including to forgo treatment) when the situation is complicated… See more Brief Comment on: 3 Ways To Take Control Of Your Health Giving blood is something that’s close to my heart. When I was 14 years old, I received seven units of packed red blood cells from strangers… Today, thousands will donate blood to honor the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr… The holiday presents, also, a special opportunity to gather much-needed registrants for the National Marrow Donor Registry… See more Why Give Blood? Communication | Empowered Patient | Health IT | Medical Education | Statistics | Wednesday Web Sighting
Into my Google Reader this morning came a post from Biophemera (an intriguing blog at the interface of art and science). Scientist-artist Jessica Palmer offers a provocative clip featuring Alex Lundry, a self-described conservative political pollster, data-miner and data visualizer… One of the first rules of medicine is knowing your sources… See more Beware the Power of Data Handling in Politics (and Medicine) Yesterday, Dr. Pauline Chen reported in the New York Times on virtual visits, a little-used approach for providing care to patients hundreds or thousands of miles apart from their physicians. Telemedicine depends on satellite technology and data transfer. It’s a theoretical and possibly real health benefit of the World Wide Web, that giant, not-new-anymore health resource that’s transforming medicine in more ways than we know. See more Skyping Medicine Here’s my short list, culled from newsworthy developments that might improve health, reduce costs of care and better patients’ lives between now and 2020, starting this year: 1. “Real” Alternative Medicine. By this I don’t mean infinitely-diluted homeopathic solutions sold in fancy bottles at high prices, but real remedies extracted from nature and sometimes ancient practices. A good example is curcumin, a curry ingredient from the root of the turmeric plant. We’re just starting to uncover this compound’s anti-cancer effects in humans. Another natural antidote that’s gaining ground is green tea; scientists are sifting through its components to see how it reduces cell growth in some forms of leukemia and other tumors. 2. Chemotherapy Pills. Why get treatment through an intravenous catheter if you can pop some pills instead? To be clear, some of the best and most effective cancer therapies require infusion. And just because a medication can be taken by mouth |
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