Many believe that a long visit with the doctor is a good medical visit. This is the long visit fallacy. Years ago I had a partner who related poorly to parents. So after some discussion and counseling he thought he’d fix the problem by spending more time with families. Time, of course, is correlated with compassion. And caring doctors take lots of time, we ... Continue Reading about The Long Visit Fallacy – The Right Attention for the Patient
Methodical Medicine: Things That Should be Done Slowly
Tom Peters inspired me this with The Speed Trap: When Taking Your Time (Really) Matters. So much of his thinking in management can be translated to medicine. So it got me thinking ...what are the things in medicine that should be methodical? What should be done slowly? To the uniformed reader, the answer will seem obvious: everything. But in medicine there is ... Continue Reading about Methodical Medicine: Things That Should be Done Slowly
The Call for Humanity in Medicine
We call for humanity in medicine but we don’t know what it means. I’ll prove it to you: Go on Twitter and say “we need more humanity in medicine.” You’ll get lots of responses and retweets. People will cheer and smile and nod and sob.Everyone will bring their story. Everyone sees the need. Everyone sees humanity in medicine their own way: The burnout ... Continue Reading about The Call for Humanity in Medicine
Fast and Slow Medical Thinking
It’s often assumed that decision making in medicine should be done slowly. As a young trainee I was lead to believe that the doctor with slow medical thinking is more thorough. Conversely we assume the faster moving professional is cutting corners. But the time in any clinical day is fixed and our bandwidth is a zero-sum game. While respecting the risk for ... Continue Reading about Fast and Slow Medical Thinking
Slow Medicine – Should Healthcare be Inconvenient?
Should healthcare be inconvenient by design? And should slow medicine be the default option in some circumstances? Slow medicine is a movement calling for change in medical practice which is inspired by the slow food movement. “Like for the slow food movement, slow medicine is a call to balance over-emphasis on fast processes which reduce quality.” But real-time ... Continue Reading about Slow Medicine – Should Healthcare be Inconvenient?
Patient Experience and the Art of Visiting
A grandmother brought her grandchild to see me recently. Several minutes into our dialog she stopped me, put her hand on my arm and said, "You're a fine doctor." "Thats so kind,” I said. “But, honestly, how do you know? We've barely met." She winked and said, “I can tell by how you talk to me.” After countering with the suggestion that she looked too young to ... Continue Reading about Patient Experience and the Art of Visiting