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cancer survival | Fitness | health care delivery | Life as a Patient | Patient-Doctor Relationship | Women's Health
 Yesterday I visited my internist. I had no particular complaint. My back hurt no more than usual. The numbness in my left foot was neither better nor worse than it was last month. I wasn’t suffering from vertigo or abdominal pain. I went because I had an appointment to see her, nothing more. Until just a few years ago, I rarely See more A Routine Visit  As pretty much anyone traveling in Europe this week can tell you, it’s sometimes hard to know what will happen next. Volcanologists – the people most expert in this sort of matter – simply can’t predict what the spitfire at Eyjafjallajokull will do next. It comes down to this: the volcano’s eruption could get better or it could get worse… See more Uncertainty Rules (on Eyjafjallajokull, volatility and a patient’s prognosis) The medical word of the month is a most definite “no.” The word is featured, explicitly and/or conceptually, in recent opinions published in two of the world’s most established media platforms — the New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine. Their combined message relates to a point I’ve made here and elsewhere, that if doctors would or could take the time to provide full and unbiased information to their patients, people might choose less care of their own good sense and free will. Let’s start with David Leonhardt’s April 7 column, “In Medicine, The Power of No.” In this excellent essay… See more When ‘No’ Turns Positive in Medical Care and Education  if we want doctors who know what they’re doing, we should invest in their education and training, starting early on and pushing well past their graduation from med school. Sure, we like physicians who are kind and honest people and can talk to them in ways they understand. This is crucial, but only to a point — we still depend on doctors to know their stuff. See more Nice Nerds Needed (in the Style of a Magazine Cover) If patients knew more: 1. they’d understand more of what doctors say; 2. they’d ask better questions; 3. they’d be more autonomous; 4. they’d make better decisions (ones they’re comfortable with, long-term); 5. they’d spend less money on care they don’t want or need. If doctors knew more… See more Ten Ways to Better Our Health (Magazine Cover Style) This is a short post about some important concepts for this blog. For purposes of this discussion, and others ongoing on what it means to be an informed patient, let’s consider the following: 1. Education is what people learn in school and other structured settings. Things learned can be true, false or partly-true and partly-false. 2. Information is a set of facts/data, and/or ideas/concepts you might find anywhere. Information can be correct or incorrect, or something in-between. 3. Knowledge involves understanding… See more Some Ideas on Information Communication | Future of Medicine | health care costs | health care delivery | Ideas | Medical Education | Patient-Doctor Relationship | Policy | Public Health
Recently in the Times’ “Patient Money” column, Lesley Alderman shared nine physicians’ views on how we might reduce our country’s health care mega-bill. Here, I’ll review those comments, add my two cents to each, and then offer my suggestion (#10, last but not least!) regarding how I think we might reduce health medical costs in North America without compromising the quality of care doctors might provide. The “answers” from… If there’s one obvious thing I didn’t learn until I was well into my forties it’s this: Don’t let a day go by without doing something you feel good about. This message is not unusual, cryptic or even interesting. It’s simple, really so trite you could find it in most any “how having cancer changed my life” book available in bookstores and on-line. Why say it again? Everyone knows we should relax and enjoy sunny weekend days like this. Because it’s a reminder to myself, as much as for some readers and maybe a few fledgling doctors out there. One of my… See more An Ordinary Day |
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