Gambling Man
An interesting paper came out this month in the online medical journal Open Heart about one particular area of prevention – heart attack. And researchers asked around 400 people a simple question:...
View ArticleExpectations
I was talking to a colleague of mine yesterday. (At least I flatter myself that I am a colleague. He has a writing job at a prestigious magazine while I, well, don’t.) We were talking about the...
View ArticleNo papers? No problem!
An immigration issue has come to my attention that I thought I would weigh in on. I was recently contacted by a reporter (Hi Alicia!) who wanted to know what I thought about admitting children of...
View ArticleMACRA – doubling down on acronyms
Consistent with the goals of the law, the proposed rule would improve the relevance and depth of Medicare’s value and quality-based payments and increase clinician flexibility by allowing clinicians to...
View ArticleEvery Batman Needs a Robin
Today we are going to talk about typing. In most professional, higher-level educational fields the guys with the fancy degrees have clerical help. It has always been thus. Lawyers have paralegals and...
View ArticleQuality? Ask The Right Questions
How do you know who the good surgeons are? Ask their colleagues. Not their fellow surgeons. Ask the nurses they work with, the anesthesiologists or critical care doctors or radiologists. And don’t just...
View ArticleProve It
I was recently asked: “Can you give a specific example of how the broad knowledge of medicine gives MD anesthesiologists an advantage?” So I sent out an email/text/tweet to my colleagues specifically...
View ArticlePractice vs. Performance
It is one of the most boring truisms on the planet: “Practice makes perfect.” It is also one of the most misleading. Practice merely ingrains certain patterns after deciding on the best course of...
View ArticleCan She Make A Cherry Pie, Billy Boy?
Here is the problem with cook-book medicine. You’ll come out with something that looks like quality care, but doesn’t really satisfy anyone. It’s nice to have guidelines, but if you don’t have the...
View ArticleCognitive Strain
The doctor-patient relationship is complicated by the fact that both doctor and patient are human, and thus have two parts to their brains. Many of you will be familiar with Daniel Kahneman’s book...
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