Maggie Mahar’s recent post, Surgeons and Other Physicians: A Cultural Divide, has prompted me to do something that I have never done before, defend my profession in writing.
The stories about abuse of medical students and nurses make it seem like the profession attracts only one type of personality, the tyrant.
I wrote in the comment field:
As a general [...]

Happy Independence Day and sincere gratitude to all who are serving in the armed forces to keep us independent, as well as to their loved ones.  My son, who is studying to become a naval aviator, is on a summer cruise off Cyprus, and it gives our family a different perspective on the 4th of July beyond [...]

I was moved watching Tim Russert’s memorial service yesterday.  We both grew up in Buffalo and rooted for the Bills, regardless of outcome.  We never met, but we share common values, including:

the importance of family
a sense of spiritual connectedness
optimism
a focus on communication and relationships as a central source of meaning and joy
the pleasure of story-telling
preservation [...]

Last week, hospitals across the US celebrated National Nurses Week, which led me to recall with gratitude nurses who made a difference in my training and kept me from harming patients. What better place to start than internship?
I salute Nikki, a nurse on the 7PM to 7AM shift in the Emergency Department of a community [...]

I wanted to alert you to a provocative, well-written post by Tina Wardrop, “Sidestepping the Medical Staff Bidding War.”
The shortages of physicians, demands of a burgeoning elderly population, and economic and family-related physician time- squeeze will create a bidding war unless we create organizations in which physicians want to work by:

offering them a chance to [...]

I commend to your reading Dr. Kevin Pho’s op-ed piece in USA Today, Shortage of Primary Care Threatens US Health System.  Kevin points out that:

Primary care should be the backbone of our healthcare system
Fragmentation increases cost without increasing quality or safety
Since 1997, the number of US medical school graduates choosing primary care has declined 50%
As we [...]

Maggie Mahar provided readers with a valuable service in “How Much Do We Really Know About Canadian Healthcare?“, a post from Sara Robinson, a dual citizen of Canada and the US with first-hand information about both systems.  Her post is a great example of policy analysis from the ground up.  Sara points out that the [...]

I grew up in Buffalo, NY, where I saw some of the first Bills’ games at my father’s side.  I sincerely hope that my writing about the Patriots in an admiring way does not cause him to turn over in his grave.
I cannot help wondering whether having an 18-0 record has as much to do [...]

The thinking behind this category is to link current events in the news to topical issues affecting healthcare collaboration.
Even the President commented that one cannot run for election without claiming to be an agent of change.  All the publicity about change made me wonder why most of the images regarding healthcare change are so negative.
A [...]