Mea sententia

When this happens, I never know whether I should be frightened or enraged.

It’s been four years since my Dad died.

Information is the currency of medical care. Transparency is the way it is vetted. Communication is the way it is shared.  Collaboration is the way it generates patient-centered outcomes. The right information must always be available to the right people at the right time in the right format.

And, by ‘available to the right people’ I don’t just mean the PCP or the consultant.

I mean the patient. 

When your clinician suggests a test, here are seven questions you should consider asking. (And if you are a clinician, you should be asking yourself these questions before you recommend the test.)

Today on the trip from Auburn (Maine) to Montpelier (Vermont) my wife spotted the Snowy Owl she had heard was hanging out near the Elk Farm just north of Snow Falls. 

Ask any primary care clinician for a list of pet peeves and one of the top three will be: “Doing my consultant’s work.”

Just to be clear, the overwhelming majority of specialist consultants DON’T do this. But some do it occasionally and a few do it as a matter of routine. Every time it happens, it rankles.

A few examples:

I met Wes when were both counsellors at the same summer camp in Rhinebeck, NY. I had just graduated from high school and he was a graduate student, a gifted musician, and willing to help me find my way through a troublesome summer.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is both familiar and common.  This week in the office, I came across a manifestation that I think warrants reporting. I call it the Spam Sign.

I am constantly amazed at how many smart people in medicine and in medical leadership or policy positions fail to grasp the difference between association and causation, and end up focused on a surrogate rather than the issue.

"We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster." (Carl Sagan)