Some of my most poignant moments in medicine happen after the ablations and devices are finished. That’s when I go visit with patients up in the medical wards. My legs are fried from standing all day. So I sit, a key move because then you are ready to listen. One good thing about computers in […]
Category: Reflection
I’ve got a good story for you. One that goes back to the early days of this blog, a time when I wrote about cycling. It turns out that the biggest medical news thus far in 2016 has a connection, albeit slight, to the recent doping news out of Belgium. You’ve heard the news from […]
The news this morning is sobering. Poor, white, middle-aged American men are dying at increasing rates. The report, published in a prestigious medical journal by a recent Nobel Prize winner, has shocked the public health community. It should shock you. NPR covered the story. So did the NY Times. Twitter is abuzz with the news. […]
One of the most common reasons people require medical care is their medical care. This is a distinctly modern problem. In times past, doctors treated disease. Patients saw their doctor when they were sick. They had a problem; doctors offered help. The doctor of today often improves health by removing healthcare. It’s one of my […]
On Baltimore: Human beings rioting in the streets of an American city forced cancellation of an important cardiology meeting. This is a vivid example that doctors do not practice in a vacuum. We are connected to this world. Here in Louisville, just a few miles north, an HIV crisis runs amok because of IV drug […]
Hi All, Here is a short update of the past week. The first thing to say is the Atrial Fibrillation Care: Put the Catheter (and Rx Pad) Down post has gotten a lot of attention. It stayed on the most popular list all week. It has over a 130 comments, and I have received many […]
It took me four years to convince my wife, Dr. Staci Mandrola, to join Twitter. Like many (previously) analog docs, Staci was resistant. “I don’t need another distraction,” went one of the arguments. Yet I knew if she tried Twitter, she would love the medium. If you care about a topic, if you are curious, […]
This week is a good time to talk about trust in expert opinion and science. For the past forty years, nutrition experts in the US have warned us about cholesterol and fat. Eat too much of it and it will block your arteries, was the proclamation. Americans did what the scientists and experts said. They […]
Concussions are serious. This I know from personal experience. My concussions changed my view of life. Thumps on the head are like that. My first concussion happened in a cyclocross race. The track had 2 grassy mounds, both about 3-feet high and in close succession. You approached them at speed. Physics dictate that going over […]
It’s been a trying week for our family. You learn things when your people need healthcare. It’s an entirely different perspective. I am doctor; I’ve been a patient, but this was the first time being “the family.†Without going into details, (see her guest post), my wife Staci came to need the best that American […]
More than a few commenters recently noted something disturbing in my writing. They said my words are increasingly taking a blame-the-patient tone. That bothers me. Of all people, I know about making imperfect health choices. These comments got me thinking about striking the right balance in writing about health, say, between apathy and defeatism, (oh […]