My physician-guru, Dr. Jerome Groopman, was on the Today Show this morning to highlight some of the excellent points he made in his book, How Doctors Think. (My editorial opinion — it’s a must-read for anyone who is having trouble getting diagnosed correctly.) But I’m beginning to swerve from my usual train of thought surrounding […]
How Doctors DON’T Think: Groopman on the Today Show Read More »
The first line of defense against hospital infections is clean hands. Seems simple, right? Yet millions of Americans are infected in hospitals every year. 100,000 Americans die from them. Read that carefully — yes — 100,000 Americans go to the hospital because they are sick, or they need surgery. They die — NOT because they
Hospital Infection Prevention Week Read More »
You know I’m a fan of Jerome Groopman, the author of How Doctors Think. In his incredibly eye-opening book, he tells of trying to get a correct diagnosis for his own health problem, and the fact that four doctors had four different diagnoses for him, and four differing ideas of how to treat it. As
One Woman, 6 Missed Diagnoses, A Lesson for Us All Read More »
I’ve talked before about blamers and fixers. Here’s a way of looking at that concept that may make you a wiser patient. One of the big questions about medical mistakes is whether practitioners should own up to them. Until recently, doctors were highly discouraged from admitting any kinds of problems had taken place, whether it
How Apologies Lead to Fixing Read More »
My heart goes out Darrie Eason, the woman who appeared on this morning’s Today Show who was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, and learned later that they had made a mistake — in fact, she had no cancer at all. In her case, her biopsy specimen was mixed up with another woman’s
Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis on Today Show: Learnings Read More »
CNN’s Empowered Patient, Elizabeth Cohen, provided more tips this week about what to do if you think you’ve been misdiagnosed. My own misdiagnosis speaks to four of her five points — and if you have just a seed of a doubt about whether your doctor has diagnosed you correctly, please take Elizabeth’s advice. Here are
CNN and Misdiagnosis: Part II Read More »
Last week, Newsweek’s My Turn featured an essay by Dr. Richard Karl. Newsweek called it “Good Doctors Spot Mistakes, Save Lives”… a lousy headline for a well-meaning essay, even if the essay needs a postscript. (I’ve provided that postscript below.) Dr. Karl, a surgeon, describes the frustration of trying to track down a sponge which
Newsweek’s My Turn: What About the Patient? Read More »
Greetings from Philadelphia, PA. Love this city – always have. It’s the city of brotherly love, and that’s why I’m here. To share a little love — or more to the point — some perspective. This is a conference FOR pharma marketers, but NOT put on by the pharma industry. That’s an important distinction, which
Pharma Karma: reporting in Read More »
