Some stories, like this one, are tricky. From every level of government to every single media outlet (no exceptions), to talk shows and social media, AND from medicine in general, we live in a time of unparalleled emotional manipulation, which I find generally contemptible. This is why I don’t want to rush in and embrace the easy…
“We’re all in this together.” Oh, how I have come to hate this phrase, which is less an expression of communal goodwill than a euphemism for “we get to take your stuff and tell you what to do.” Arizona’s two major health systems, Banner Health and Dignity Health, are putting this into practice with the very folks we…
This will let me in for some criticism, so too bad. I am angry, very damn angry over our response to the Corona/Wuhan/Covid-19 virus. On 9/11/01, when I saw that the second tower had been hit, my first thought upon realizing this was an attack, was that the power and reach of the federal government would…
You have a dry cough, maybe a little fever during the night. Were those muscle aches? Your throat feels fine, but now there’s a slight headache. You could go to work but would be happy to stay in bed. You’re a conscientious employee with a bale of sick days saved up, so you burn one, pour some coffee, and…
While I can’t deny the sleaze factor of our next story, I’ve got to admire the entrepreneurial spirit therein. There is real adaptability in combining tech with a remarkable lack of ethics or even standards and applying it to the I-want-it-now retail mindset. A nurse of (charitably) dubious qualification has used Google to establish a bunch of…
So far as I know, the infernal USMLE is still in force, which means medical students have a ton of junk to stuff into their brains long enough to vomit it back on to the test in hopes of doing well enough to pass, and maybe surpass their colleagues. But no, enter Jennifer Talbott, a…
More than twenty years ago in family practice residency, we were introduced to caring “for the whole patient.” We were supposed to know everything about their entire lives, their jobs, economic status, their families, and so forth. The logical discipline was, of course, that really knowing someone would translate to better treatment, better care. That makes sense. Yet even…
Once again, another fine case of a hospital deciding to target a physician, in this instance, an OB/GYN named Rebecca Denman, MD. “In December 2017, a nurse practitioner at St. Vincent Carmel Hospital reported that Denman smelled of alcohol while working an overnight shift” and reported her … the next day. Was Denman drinking on duty? “She noted that…
Has the average human body temperature dropped? Some researchers think so. Having looked at data spanning 157 years, and adjusting for potential variances in measuring methodologies, they figure our average temp has dropped by about one half of one degree Fahrenheit. A lot of variables are postulated, including less overall inflammation, different microbial exposures, and improved hygiene…
If physicians have any worth to society, it ought to begin with their telling the truth. Some of you have read my repeated claim that health care is a thoroughly dishonest industry, and it is. Our profession is guilty of allowing that corruption to infect and direct us. An old friend of mine who works in an…