This is the second post in my Patient Manifesto series. In my first post I tried to outline some broad categories of things patients want and expect from their doctor. One comment addressed two points that I didn’t focus much on but that in hindsight should not have escaped me — communication... Read more →

Business Week magazine has an interesting article regarding conflicts of interest among physicians, in particular cardiologists and those who publish clinical data regarding medicines or devices. I’ve alluded to such conflicts in previous posts, but it clearly is gaining national attention, particular... Read more →

My last post about Doctors and Guns definitely generated some interesting comments. I really enjoyed reading the different perspectives and want to thank all readers for their comments. It has made me realize that this blog can be much more interactive and thus I will try to provide more stimulating... Read more →

Our series on Medicine and the Law continues. Previously, I wrote about what is necessary for a physician-patient relationship to exist — contract and consent. Then I went on to discuss medical malpractice and that a legitimate grievance from a patient must show that the physician has a duty to... Read more →

In the public news I’ve recently seen some stories about physicians having guns in their offices. This is in response to incidents where disgruntled or disturbed patients have come into physician offices and assaulted staff or physicians. In one instance, a pain and palliative care physician suffered... Read more →

A few weeks ago I read an interesting article on the topic of the shortage of physicians in the United States. Apparently, the increasing population and the baby boomers entering retirement is going to put a huge strain on this country. In terms of Social Security and Medicare, it already is. There is... Read more →

For those of you that don’t know, there is a new trend in medicine these days — it’s called going “Non-Par.” Non-Par simply means “Non-Participating.” When a physician goes Non-Par, it means that he or she is no longer participating in certain insurance reimbursement... Read more →

Since I started my series about Medicine and the Law, I’ve been thinking a lot about a debate I used to have with my friends when I was younger. Some of my friends wanted to be lawyers, others wanted to be doctors. At that time, doctors were paid more than lawyers. Since that time, lawyers are... Read more →

Continuing on in my series of posts about Medicine and the Law, we’ve established that there are two elements necessary for a patient-physician relationship to be established — contract and consent. There must be a written or implied contract in place, and there must be agreement to it on... Read more →

I’ve decided to go ahead and post a series on Medicine and the Law. One of the things I hear about so often from both sides of the patient-physician relationship is the fear and threat of legal action. Typically physicians are paranoid of being sued. They practice defensive medicine and go out... Read more →

There is this booming industry in medicine that more and more people are becoming aware of. It’s called Medical Tourism. It doesn’t mean that you go around the world touring medical sites. It’s actually the concept of people traveling to different countries to have medical procedures... Read more →