Why Not Tweet When You Are In the Hospital and Not Feeling Well?

Being isolated in a hospital room leaves you vulnerable to doctors who may be inappropriate, rude and even abusive. You might consider that having the capacity to call for help – to Tweet – is empowering. Health care #911, and very public! But…

Posted in Blogs, Communication, Empowered Patient, Future of Medicine, health care delivery, Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Media, Privacy, Social MediaTagged , , , , , , 4 Comments on Why Not Tweet When You Are In the Hospital and Not Feeling Well?

The Immeasurable Value of Continuity of Care

Today I visited my internist for a checkup and flu shot. We talked about how I’m doing, and she examined me, and we discussed what procedures I ought have done and not done. She’s been my doctor since the summer of 1987, when I was an intern at the hospital. We reviewed so much that […]

Posted in Essential Lessons, Future of Medicine, health care delivery, Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment on The Immeasurable Value of Continuity of Care

How to Avoid Death in the ICU

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.

Posted in cancer treatment, Communication, Empowered Patient, Essential Lessons, health care costs, Life as a Doctor, Medical Ethics, Palliative Care, Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments on How to Avoid Death in the ICU

Why Medical Lessons?

One of the things I liked best about practicing medicine is that I was constantly learning.

Making rounds at seven in the morning on an oncology floor would be a chore if you didn’t get to examine and think and figure out what’s happening to a man with leukemia whose platelets are dangerously low, or whose lymphoma is responding to treatment but can’t take anymore medicine because of an intense, burn-like rash. You’d have to look stuff up, sort among clues

Posted in Communication, from the author, Ideas, Life, Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Medical Education, Medical Ethics, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Why Medical Lessons?
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