I’ve said it before here many times over. In achieving quality of medical care, information and transparency are fundamental. Knowledge empowers patients to share in their medical decisions. Doctors have always been teachers, but with the explosion of medical treatment options, this role has never been more important. Currently, in most of the real world, […]
Doctors and Social Media — Increasing the good we do?
“Mass social media is a crock. It is an inherent contradiction. This is why I like LinkedIn more than Facebook. It has a special purpose and therefore doesn’t feel like a time waster. FWIW, I predict the next huge win in social media will be in health care.” –Rich Karlgaard (Forbes.com) writing in WSJ […]
An important message from the Heart Rhythm Society
You all know how I feel about the value of education in the treatment and prevention of heart disease: It is self-evident and unquestionable. Along the lines of educating patients and docs, and in the spirit of February being Heart Health Awareness month, I believe The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) deserves strong mention for their […]
On doing clinical research without a foundation
I learned a lot from putting together an abstract for a national heart meeting. More than just learning how to e-submit, e-upload and e-print a large poster; More than what t-tests and chi-squares measure; More than learning that females respond differently to AF ablation; And surely more than which coffee shop offers the best work […]
Work-life balance in Medicine–Maybe the young are on to something?
I read an interesting story about young doctors today. American Medical News reported that the changing desires of resident doctors poses recruiting challenges for practices. It’s an eye-opener–a look into the future of healthcare. It seems young docs want unusual things from their career in Medicine. The new generation of doctors seek employment, not partnership, […]
An important website for judging the quality of medical news
When I learn something that might be useful to you, I like to write about it. To date, the topics that I feel most comfortable writing about relate to doctoring, heart disease, healthy living and cycling. But an area that I am growing more and more intrigued with is health news reporting. As a believer […]
AF Update: Flecainide misinformation
I have said that the best tool for treating atrial fibrillation (AF) is education. I still strongly believe this, perhaps more then ever. AF presents itself to people in so many different ways–from no symptoms to incapacitation. Likewise, the treatments for AF range from simple reassurance and lifestyle changes, to taking a medicine, and on […]
Sal Khan explains Heart Disease in ten minutes
More than a year ago, I wrote about the amazing educator, Sal Khan. His website, KhanAcademy, has become an educational behemoth. Using colorful and warmly narrated ten-minute YouTube videos, Sal explains–with breathtaking clarity–almost everything you might want or need to know. He made me grin about re-learning how to do a derivative. He even personally […]
Trying our hand at research
In a classroom, when you are passionate about something, it seems natural to raise your hand and ask a question, or make a comment. That’s how we feel about AF ablation in our EP lab. And it is amazing what can be learned when you actually look back at your past clinical data. What you […]
Cycling Wednesday: The Three Rs
This Wednesday, I’d like to talk about how rodents, relationships, and riding relate to intelligence and overall wellness. This idea comes from a nicely written NY Times piece entitled, Does Loneliness Reduce the Benefits of Exercise? Here, Ms Gretchen Reynolds reviews a few intriguing studies about how relationships may affect exercise, stress hormone levels and […]
Choosing Option A
He was an athletic healthy-looking young man. His symptoms were transient and had occurred a while back. He was sent in for a “heart check-up.” We met, and something old-fashioned happened. A history was taken, an exam performed, an inexpensive ECG reviewed and then I said this: “You know what…I think you are OK…I don’t […]
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