Freedom of speech is in the news. Intolerance of ideas isn’t just affecting our colleges and universities. I think illiberalism has spread to health and medicine. For many reasons, scientists and clinicians alike have grown weary of debate. This is bad. The philosopher Karl Popper said science advances through falsification. Without the challenge of ideas, […]
Category: Knowledge
One of the biggest challenges in medicine and science is understanding correlation and causation. Medicine has become increasingly evidence-based. But what does the evidence really say? Is a study signal or noise? Does enough correlation mean causation (e.g. smoking causes cancer)?  How much hope can we put on big data? In the last few years, […]
It comes in a large white envelope each month. It’s marked confidential. When I hold it up to the light, I can see through the envelope. I can’t see the details, but the colored graphs give it away. It’s my monthly productivity report. Most employed doctors get these graphs. These “dashboards” of value include your […]
Our cautionary left atrial appendage occlusion (Watchman) editorial is now published in a prominent medical journal, called Heart Rhythm. My co-authors are Drs. Andrew Foy and Gerald Naccarelli from Penn State. It was a peer-reviewed version of my previous theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology column. Watchman and other similar devices are plugs that occlude the left atrial […]
Once again, the Nobel prize for economics–not science and medicine–has immense influence on the practice of medicine. Every day, in fact. This year, Richard Thaler, a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago, won for his work on human biases and temptations. The famous writer Michael Lewis (Moneyball) has a nice essay on Thaler’s work […]
I was furiously tapping on the computer when he asked: “Doc, what happens if I don’t have the procedure you are recommending?” Glee spread through my body. I grinned and nearly jumped up from the stool to hug him. I enthusiastically answered. Few patients ask this vital question. I tweeted about the encounter: An older […]
Our brains can easily fool us. No experienced doctor would deny the power of the placebo effect. Today I want to discuss the nocebo effect, which occurs when negative expectations of something causes it to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would. Drugs can exert a strong nocebo effect. If your brain thinks […]
We have to talk about drugs. No, not illicit drugs, but medications used by doctors and patients. Plaintiff attorneys run ads on TV that fool people into thinking certain meds are bad. The current one I deal with is the clot-blocking drug rivaroxaban (Xarelto.) Before that, it was dabigatran (Pradaxa). If, or when, the makers […]
I like thinking and learning. Birthdays surely make one slower on the bike, but birthdays, it seems, do not have the same drag on the brain. For me, birthdays have increased my appreciation of liberty. In the Constitution of Liberty, Hayek defines it as the absence of coercion. Such is a beautiful definition. Don’t coerce […]
Concerned citizens will march this weekend to defend science. Standing up for science is a worthy cause. Look at what medical science has accomplished in recent times: serious diseases, HIV, heart attack, many forms of cancer, have been tamed by the advance of science. We need more not less science. It’s nuts to cut funding […]
I am seeing an increasing number of patients who did not know they had a choice about taking a medicine or having a procedure. Why did you have that heart cath? A: My doctor said I should. Why are you on that medicine? A: My doctor prescribed it. It’s time we re-review the basic four […]