Three short years ago, the first partial face transplantation was performed in France and recently the first of these procedures to be conducted in the United States was successfully accomplished. This was only the fourth operation of its type but experts estimate that perhaps as early as next year the first complete face transplant will be attempted.

It is one thing to receive a donation of an organ such as a heart or liver, which is inside of one’s body and never seen, but quite another to look into the mirror everyday and see someone else’s face. While the underlying bone structure of the affected patient will largely determine the facial construct, the knowledge of the organ’s origins may be too much for some to bear psychologically. Read more →

When a new drug is approved and enters the marketplace, often the only safety and efficacy information available is based on a few thousand people who took the drug during strictly controlled clinical trials. Not surprisingly, these trials are designed to focus on the drugs’ benefits, and may not include a large enough sample size to elicit serious adverse effects. Once the drug is available for widespread use, we are able to better evaluate the real safety profile of the drug. Read more →

The adage of those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it rings as true in medicine as in any other field. Learning from previous patients and past experiences — even mistakes — is the best learning tool in medicine. The treatment and diagnosis of epilepsy is no different, and a new review article published in the quarterly journal Seminars in Neurology evaluates frequent mistakes made in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of epilepsy and provides practical solutions to optimize patient care. Read more →

Medical miscommunication is a very real problem in healthcare today. Miscommunication is essentially the failure to convey relevant medical information to key players in the medical team; resulting in minor errors or even malpractice. Ineffective communication may occur between patient and doctor or between physicians and experts.

In large hospital systems, medical notes are supposed to be transferred internally from department to department. But this often reaches the healthcare professional only after they have seen the patient. The transfer of medical records between two different hospital systems is almost non-existent, unless patients proactively demand it. Even then, there are numerous delays — a potentially dangerous and frustrating situation for the patient. Read more →

Nobody questions the fact that healthcare is a confusing profession. Doctors and nurses seem to speak in foreign tongues; medicines have names and ingredients that are not even pronounceable; more and more news comes out every day about diseases and conditions that seem to contradict each other. If doctors must devote 12 years of higher education just to get a basic understanding of how the body works, how does a patient hope to know what’s wrong with them? Read more →

One of the difficult things about having a career in medicine is that reputation is paramount. It is quite precious and is easily shattered. There are not many industries where interpersonal interaction is more important. From interactions between a provider and his patients, nurses, ancillary staff, and other providers, the professional reputation of a doctor is made. Sometimes it is fair, sometimes it is not. It’s an industry where subjective opinions of others dictates the volume and quality of referrals a doctor can get. Read more →