Newspapers

Doctor: What Would You Do?

Dr. Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard, gives us all good advice in the column she wrote this week in the Boston Globe called Longing for Days the Doctor Still Advised. In her column, she follows the “history” of the role of patient as participant in decision-making about his/her own health care. In effect, […]

Doctor: What Would You Do? Read More »

Pharma Profits Can Kill You

Once again we find prescription drugs at the center of debate — and we patients are the ones who will be hurt by it. (so what else is new?) The AP, including the Washington Post, Forbes , TV news and others are reporting that three pharm drugs approved for anemia have been promoted and used

Pharma Profits Can Kill You Read More »

When is News Not News?

So when is news not news? When it’s invented for the sake of sales and marketing, that’s when. My friend and co-advocate, Helen Haskell in South Carolina, forwarded a link to an article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Trudy Lieberman about what those in the marketing biz call VNRs — Video News Releases. Excellent

When is News Not News? Read More »

Doctors: Manage our Expectations, please!

That’s the theme that popped up time after time, segment after segment, this morning as we taped my weekly radio show. One interview took place with Dr. Dale Avers, an associate professor of the physical therapy education program at SUNY Upstate. Our conversation on the show was about total knee replacement and the physical therapy

Doctors: Manage our Expectations, please! Read More »

Are you in Knoxville? Watch for EPA!

As announced here several weeks ago, my Every Patient’s Advocate columns can now be found in the Knoxville News Sentinel — and today is the debut. This is my official date of syndication! I now have two regular publications carrying my column — and hope to add many more. Find “Take Your Pills Seriously” in

Are you in Knoxville? Watch for EPA! Read More »

Medical Consumerism by Definition

A question popped up this morning in reaction to my column in today’s Post Standard. The column is short — you can read it here: Five Words Can Make All the Difference The question regards Medical Consumerism — a label that marries the concepts of medical care and the idea of patient as consumer. Turns

Medical Consumerism by Definition Read More »

The New York Times: Health Literacy ~ getting it right this time

Yesterday I came down on the Times — so today I’ll give them some credit for Jane Brody’s article on health literacy. Seems that regardless of someone’s level of education, socio-economic status, age, race, etc, we are equally capable of being considered as “low health literate.” The article reviews two studies that cite earlier death

The New York Times: Health Literacy ~ getting it right this time Read More »

The New York Times – asleep at the switch?

A health report written by Eric Nagourney, and featured last week in the New York Times tells us that doctors spend almost 16 minutes with patients — at least those who are older than 65. The patients came from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, and the study was done in three different medical situations, and

The New York Times – asleep at the switch? Read More »

Scroll to Top