Last week STAT First Opinion carried the story of a young woman who learned of her BRCA1 (mutation predisposing to breast cancer) mutation on a 23andMe report. She describes the experience of processing that explosive bit of information in the isolation of her own mind and information network. Contrasting this experience with the confirmation of her status with a ... Continue Reading about The Physician and the Health Docent
Non-Place in Health Care
Amber Case got me thinking with this brief essay on the non-place. Briefly defined, non-places are urban or industrial spaces where personhood is put on pause. And they’re everywhere, from airports, highways and chain supermarkets, to narrow, suffocating, condo-filled streets — the in-between spaces where people are without relation or history. In a ... Continue Reading about Non-Place in Health Care
Patient Centered Care – Healthcare’s New Buzzword
The latest trend in health care is patient-centered care. It’s a strange term. Strange, because what other kind of care is there? There’s this from the New England Journal of Medicine’s Catalyst: In patient-centered care, an individual’s specific health needs and desired health outcomes are the driving force behind all health care decisions and ... Continue Reading about Patient Centered Care – Healthcare’s New Buzzword
When Patients See a New Doctor
I recently filled in for a colleague who couldn’t make it to clinic. Families were given the option to reschedule but most were fine seeing me, the new doctor. Some of these children had seen my colleague for years. And few knew what it was like to talk to someone different about their child’s chronic bowel disease. It was kind of a big deal. What were ... Continue Reading about When Patients See a New Doctor
Bridging the Doctor Patient Divide to Improve Communication
One of my biggest challenges is bridging the doctor patient divide. It’s the gap that separates the way doctors and patients see a problem. What parents under my care think is typically different from what I think. Their concerns and fears are often removed from the reality of my thinking. That’s not a judgment, it’s a recognition of differences of how we frame and ... Continue Reading about Bridging the Doctor Patient Divide to Improve Communication
Don’t Look at the Internet
Don’t look at the internet. No matter how few doctors tell their patients this, we talk like it’s everyone. We love the story. It fulfills the narrative of the stereotypical controlling doctor. But don’t look at the internet is a hangover from the early days of the Information Age. It marked the transition from physician as sole arbiter of information to patient ... Continue Reading about Don’t Look at the Internet