All “insurance” is based upon population statistics. These statistics are used to calculate the cost of caring for “The Herd”. Whether it’s for health, life, auto, home, property, or quarterbacks’ arms, all insurance is just a big bet. It’s a wager by the private or government insurer… . For the private insurer (Aetna, Blue, United, etc.) their ability to stay in business (profitability and stock value) depends upon consistently winning the wager.
Humor
Is the United Federation Health Starship Crashing?
“Chief Engineering Officer T. Price Scott reports that central core of the health starship’s engine room has been taken over by a giant bloated creature. It’s bad news…. The di-lithium crystals are burning out.(This is far worse than the Tribble infestation).
Preliminary tri-corder analysis by Chief Science Officer Commander Ryan-Spock indicates that the creature is of the dreaded species “Octobamagon”.
What Is More Byzantine Than Government Regulation?
One memorable surge of the Byzantine invasion, was a benevolent-sounding legislative attempt to improve the quality and standards of medical laboratories. It was called, euphemistically, the “Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act” of 1988, or, CLIA.
Word Picture: What are “Adhesions”?
The intestines are just one long continuous tube of pasta piled into the abdominal cavity with freedom to slither and contract and move around to squeeze their contents along the path. Until something causes these loops to get stuck together, like a drying-out bowl of spaghetti.
Efficient Office Rules – Part 2 – (how to speak “doctor”)
Efficient Office Rules (and what we’re really thinking)
The HIPAA, The Unicorn, and Other Mythological Creatures
Who Are My Most Memorable Characters? (Doctors)
Dr. Banov was, perhaps, the kindest, most astute, most compassionate doctor and teacher of the art of “beside manner” that I have ever met. If I haven’t said this before in a previous blog, I must now tell you another term for “bedside manner” that I am fond of using. It’s that ability to make people feel better by just being with them. I would like to take credit now for coining the term: “therapeutic presence”. Dr. Banov had it.
Word Picture: How is the Colon Like a Tube of Toothpaste?
Many years ago I had the great pleasure of sitting at the feet (not literally) of Dr. Denis Burkitt a great physician/surgeon, recipient of the highest international medical awards, Christian missionary and teacher, and renowned medical scholar, whose epidemiological studies in Africa led, among other things to the first links between viral disease and the development of some types of cancer. His mapping of the incidence of a particular tumor in children across parts of Africa led to the connection between it and the spread of a virus, probably via insect bites. The tumor bears his name: Burkitt’s Lymphoma.
He is further known for changing the way the West looks at dietary health, being among the first to point out the dangers of refined carbohydrates and the benefits of foods rich in dietary fiber. I remember his lecture on the topic to this day and believe I have repeated portions of it to thousands of patients over the last thirty years.
Is There Any Such Thing as “Mental Illness?”
So, again, I dare you to show it to me this thing called “the mind” so we can all see it, define it, quantify it, study it, and treat it. Thus we can properly define and seek to cure this thing we call “mental” illness.
This is not to say that we can’t tell a lot about someone’s “mind”, but this we can do only indirectly. The contents of one’s thoughts, ideas, expressions, choices, actions, etc. tell us about the “mind” but they are not “the mind”. To direct some type of therapy to any one “thing” that is a “mind” is not like treating a lung or a liver or a pancreas.
Word Picture: What’s a Migraine, a House-Fairy or a Spring Shower?
“Migraine” is actually a spectrum or sequence of neurological, musculo-skeletal, vascular, visceral, and inflammatory reactions that may be associated with a really bad headache… or no headache at all.
Can I Sell You My New Wonder Drug?
I can’t leave this topic alone. Have I got something to sell you! I want to promote my new wonder drug on Dr. Oz. Always said that placebos worked. Wish I could bottle that stuff. Did you know what an “indication” is?
Why Am I Hearing About This? (Part II)
We’re the Strange Ones – Part 2
We’re the Strange Ones – Part 1
Skulking the Aisles
“Doctor… Ain’t there nothin’ I can take?” The Problem With Voicemail
What follows is an abbreviated transcript of an actual medical voicemail exchange illustrating the problem with voicemail. It’s like the party game, “Rumor.”
I Filled Out This Form Last Year!
“We See This….”
Many people have had the following experience with their doctor (maybe even me!)… The doctor listens to your medical query or complaint or examines the area or issue in question. Then he leans back, rubs his chin in a sage manner, emits a thoughtful… “hmmmmm,” then states, in a most authoritative manner, “We see this.”