Apr

30

The Great Debate

April 30, 2007 | 40 Comments

Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Moslem and Jew. Windows and Mac. Republican and Democrat. Partisanship and sectarian strife abound but these are nothing, as tame as church picnics, compared to the seething clandestine war being waged in teaching hospitals across the country over whether the house staff should or should not be allowed to [...]

Apr

26

Other Medical Careers Part One: The Most Controversial Article Ever Which Will Cause A Flood of Irate Comments and In Which I Tread Carefully But Obviously Not Carefully Enough

April 26, 2007 | 91 Comments

Osteopathic Medicine
My mother, who is from Greece, is visiting us and was amazed to hear that our program is a combined osteopathic and allopathic program.  She had no idea that chiropractors were used in the Emergency Department. In Europe, you see, osteopaths are not trained medical doctors but confine their practice to manipulation and other alternative therapies.  In [...]

Apr

25

Pie Will Out

April 25, 2007 | 26 Comments

I’m a Doctor, Not a Magician
I get accused of being a cynic and a realist, especially by people who are themselves self-proclaimed idealists. Why it is wrong to be a realist or cynical is the topic for another day. But I do actually have an idealistic heart and one that would shame the [...]

Apr

23

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There: Part Three

April 23, 2007 | 46 Comments

(In which we mostly belabor the obvious.-PB)
Mostly Over-doctored
How much health insurance do most people need for most of their lives? The answer is none. Most people are fairly healthy and have mostly healthy children who could probably manage to go years between visits to the doctor. When they do go, it is [...]

Apr

20

Random Ramblings

April 20, 2007 | 27 Comments

That Doctor
It’s official, I have become “That Doctor.”
You know, the guy who told them that their father only had three months to live and here he is, six months later, being wheeled in by his triumphant family. I mean, he looks almost the same as when I saw him the last time, maybe [...]

Apr

19

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There: Part Two

April 19, 2007 | 15 Comments

(Medical care is expensive, no doubt about it, but the remedies proposed by the usual suspects who hope to leverage the problem into political power don’t address the real factors driving up the cost. Maybe I’m just not an excitable fellow but I like to keep a cool head and not get swept up [...]

Apr

16

Don’t Tell the Spartans

April 16, 2007 | 29 Comments

(Many of you are about to start third year and are looking forward to it with feelings of both anticipation and dread. You know that it’s going to be the real start of your medical career where you finally get to see what all the fuss is about. At the same time, despite the propaganda, [...]

Apr

12

Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Jackpot Mentality

April 12, 2007 | 63 Comments

Physician Defend Thyself
Imagine you are in a rural Emergency Department on a quiet night. The radio crackles. It’s EMS giving a report to the charge nurse. You overhear “snowmobile,” “Loss of consciousness on scene but patient now alert and combative,” “Open fracture of the left femur,” and “Possible ETOH.”
The patient arrives and [...]

Apr

11

Medicine in the Media: More Reviews

April 11, 2007 | 9 Comments

Strong Medicine
Every now and then my wife and I like to put on our fleece pyjamas and our fuzzy slippers and sit on the sofa with hot cups of herbal tea watching Strong Medicine, an estrogen-charged medical series offered on Lifetime. The show is about a Group of female gynecologists who have somehow managed to take [...]

Apr

9

Medicine in the Media: Some Reviews from a Guy Who Likes Television

April 9, 2007 | 19 Comments

MASH
I’m probably one of the few people in America who will admit to not liking MASH, one of the most popular shows in the history of television. Although it was ostensibly about a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War, the subtext was Viet Nam, an era in American history when we all decided [...]

Apr

9

A Letter to an Attending

April 9, 2007 | 41 Comments

Who do You Think You Are?
Dear Sir or Madame,
I am exceedingly glad to be done with the rotation. I have been a resident for almost two years and that month was perhaps the worst experience of my medical career. You made what should have been a moderately unpleasant experience which is what we expect [...]

Apr

7

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There

April 7, 2007 | 29 Comments

(If I fellow could keep his head and not get caught up in the hysteria surrounding health care, if he could just keep his mouth shut and his eyes open he might see the real problems in the system without being blinded and deafened by the usual propaganda from the usual suspects using Health Care [...]

Apr

5

The Future, Or What’s Left of It

April 5, 2007 | 15 Comments

Grandpa Remembers
“Man, that was a good dog…grandmother, pass me another piece of the collie. Kids, take it from your old grandpa, store-bought dog is usually pretty good but even General Kang’s Digit Lickin’ Good Seoul Fried Canine can’t compare to your grandmother’s fried collie. It’s just what the doctor ordered.”
“Aw hell, I’m afraid [...]

Apr

1

The Slacker’s Guide: Part the First

April 1, 2007 | 17 Comments

(When I first started this blog, I was going to call it “The Slacker’s Guide to Medical School” because as you, my long-suffering readers know, I didn’t exactly cover myself in academic glory.  I decided against calling it “The Slacker’s Guide” for the simple reason that I am not, in fact, a slacker.  I like [...]