Eye Care

…the office has expanded and become so systematized that when I go there I don’t feel like I’m visiting a doctor, the kind of professional who sincerely cares about my health. Instead I feel like a commodity, which I suppose I am.

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The Physical Exam’s Value is Not Just Emotional

But what’s also true, in a practical and bottom-line sort of way, is that a good physical exam can help doctors figure out what’s wrong with patients. If physicians were more confident – better trained, and practiced – in their capacity to make diagnoses by physical exam, we could skip the costs and toxicity of countless x-rays, CT scans and other tests.

Posted in Diagnosis, Essential Lessons, Medical Education, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Physical ExaminationTagged , , , , , 4 Comments on The Physical Exam’s Value is Not Just Emotional

Doctors Not Using Email Like It’s 2010

There’s been a recent barrage of med-blog posts on the unhappy relationship between doctors and electronic communications. The first, a mainly reasonable rant by Dr. Wes* dated August 7, When The Doctor’s Always In, considers email in the context of unbounded pressure on physicians to avail themselves to their patients 24/7. That piece triggered at […]

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What the Dermatologist Did Right

Kudos to my newest doctor, a dermatologist whom I met yesterday for evaluation of a small, benign-appearing mole I recently noted on my right leg. What she did right: 1. She saw me promptly, at the time of my scheduled appointment. (Thank you, you seem to value my time, as I do yours.) 2. In […]

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A Routine Visit

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

Posted in cancer survival, health care delivery, Life as a Patient, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Primary Care, Women's HealthTagged , , , , 1 Comment on A Routine Visit

Ten Ways to Better Our Health

(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…

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9 + 1 Ways to Reduce Health Care Costs

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…

Posted in Communication, Future of Medicine, health care costs, health care delivery, Ideas, Medical Education, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Policy, Public HealthTagged , , , , , , Leave a Comment on 9 + 1 Ways to Reduce Health Care Costs

A Small Study Offers Insight On Breast Cancer Patients’ Capacity and Eagerness to Participate in Medical Decisions

Last week the journal Cancer published a small but noteworthy report on women’s experiences with a relatively new breast cancer decision tool called Oncotype DX. This lab-based technology, which has not received FDA approval, takes a piece of a woman’s tumor and, by measuring expression of 21 genes within, estimates the likelihood, or risk, that her tumor will recur.

As things stand, women who receive a breast cancer diagnosis face difficult decisions…

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer survival, Communication, Diagnosis, Empowered Patient, Informed Consent, Oncology (cancer), Pathology, Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Statistics, Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments on A Small Study Offers Insight On Breast Cancer Patients’ Capacity and Eagerness to Participate in Medical Decisions

Henrietta’s Cells Speak

“One of the ways that I gained the trust of the family is that I gave them information.” (R. Skloot, a journalist, speaking about her interactions with Henrietta Lacks’ family, Columbia University, 2/2/10)

Posted in Books, Communication, Essential Lessons, Ideas, Informed Consent, Life as a Patient, Medical Education, Medical Ethics, Oncology (cancer), Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Privacy, Reviews, Science, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Henrietta’s Cells Speak

Are Doctors Necessary?

Ten years ago, my colleagues and I squirmed in our swivel chairs when a few tech-savvy patients filed in bearing reams of articles they’d discovered, downloaded and printed for our perusal.

Some of us accepted these informational “gifts” warily, half-curious about what was out there and half-loathing the prospect of more reading. Quite a few complained about the changing informational dynamic between patients and their physicians, threatened by a perceived and perhaps real loss of control.

How a decade can make a difference. In 2008 over 140 million Americans…

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Essential Lessons, Health IT, Life as a Doctor, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Public Health, Social MediaTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Are Doctors Necessary?

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

Skyping 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.

Posted in Communication, Diagnosis, Future of Medicine, Health IT, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Skyping Medicine

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?

Dinner with my Family

Family gatherings centered on two things – food, and talk about medicine. We spoke of interesting cases (always nameless), challenging conditions and, even back then, the constraints of health care costs. My fiancé, now husband of over 20 years, couldn’t get over how debate over health care dominated our Rosh Hashanah and Thanksgiving feasts…

…when I learned I had breast cancer, I knew exactly what to do. The decisions, though difficult, were almost straightforward, buttressed by my knowledge and familiarity with the language of medicine…

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Life as a Doctor, Life as a Patient, Medical Education, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , 5 Comments on Dinner with my Family
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