Preventing disease saves the crippling costs of tertiary care
When I was a family medicine intern, I met a diabetic patient in the hospital who had stopped seeing his regular doctor after he lost his job and his health insurance. His untreated diabetes made his...
View ArticleHelping with the psychosocial needs of patients
The psychosocial needs of patients can feel overwhelming for a doctor. Our rite of passage as medical students, after all, is anatomy, not sociology. Even now, after a family medicine residency...
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Pay for performance doesn’t work in difficult patient populations
Pay for performance. It’s a lovely sounding concept. If you’re a good doctor, defined by having healthy patients who meet predetermined quality indicators, then you get paid more. What could be...
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How Medicare undermines primary care
When I was a family medicine intern, I met a diabetic patient in the hospital who had stopped seeing his regular doctor after he lost his job and his health insurance. His untreated diabetes made his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The positive effects of palliative care on quality of life
“I’ve been a fighter all my life,” said my new patient, a middle aged man with thinning hair, a worried wife, and a dismal prognosis. He had worked all his life as a plumber with no health insurance....
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What should be the stated aim of health care in America?
The triple aim of health care, as defined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is: improving the experience of care, bettering the health of populations, and reducing the per capita...
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Why doctors should drive health reform
Who better knows how to fix a leak than a plumber? Who better knows how to repair a cracked doorway than a carpenter? Who better knows how to solve the conundrum of our leaking cracked health care...
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While doctors disagree, every physician wants to fix health care
Three out of four dentists recommend this tooth brightening toothpaste -- make your smile sparkle like never before! Six out of seven plumbers recommend this drain opening de-clogger -- make your...
View ArticleReform creates new incentives in health care
I advocated for the Affordable Care Act, and celebrated when it was passed. It’s good to have everyone covered, I thought. Insurance for everyone is the first step to health care for all. Alas, access...
View ArticleShadowing physicians continues the cycle of paying forward
Is Physician “Shadowing” a Shady Practice? asks Dr. Elisabeth Kitsis in a post at the Doctor’s Tablet, a blog run through the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She concludes that yes, it is, and...
View ArticleHow to stop losing primary care physicians to burnout
Here’s a central difficulty of the Affordable Care Act: If everyone has access to health insurance, then everyone has access to all the medical care they need. Curing sickness and preventing death...
View ArticleState legislatures should not enter the exam room
The doctor-patient relationship is under threat from state laws that try to shape what we can and can’t do for our patients. Many state legislatures are proposing laws that limit the questions doctors...
View ArticleBlessed to be alive after a gunshot wound
“Blessed. I’m so blessed.” She kept repeating this, from her seat on the examining table. “I’m so blessed.” I unwrapped the bandage holding on the splint that had covered her arm for the three weeks...
View ArticleThe gun violence epidemic is a traumatic injury epidemic
“What brings you in today?” I asked my new patient, a healthy appearing clean cut 35-year-old married man with kids. “Check me out, doc.” (STD check? chronic disease screen?) “My brother was just...
View ArticleA positive view of health reform, no thanks to the HITECH Act
Recently I completed the Commonwealth Fund’s 2015 International Survey of Primary Care Doctors. They wanted to know what I thought about our health system; if fundamentally it worked or needed to be...
View ArticlePreventing disease saves the crippling costs of tertiary care
When I was a family medicine intern, I met a diabetic patient in the hospital who had stopped seeing his regular doctor after he lost his job and his health insurance. His untreated diabetes made his...
View ArticleHelping with the psychosocial needs of patients
The psychosocial needs of patients can feel overwhelming for a doctor. Our rite of passage as medical students, after all, is anatomy, not sociology. Even now, after a family medicine residency...
View ArticlePay for performance doesn’t work in difficult patient populations
Pay for performance. It’s a lovely sounding concept. If you’re a good doctor, defined by having healthy patients who meet predetermined quality indicators, then you get paid more. What could be...
View ArticleHow Medicare undermines primary care
When I was a family medicine intern, I met a diabetic patient in the hospital who had stopped seeing his regular doctor after he lost his job and his health insurance. His untreated diabetes made his...
View ArticleThe positive effects of palliative care on quality of life
“I’ve been a fighter all my life,” said my new patient, a middle aged man with thinning hair, a worried wife, and a dismal prognosis. He had worked all his life as a plumber with no health insurance....
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