Why electronic medical records?

I believe medical records should be computer based.  All doctors treating each patient should share the same complete information.  It is shocking that most m...

Christmas’s first name is Steve

This blog is a holiday present to loyal readers.  Here is trivia to beguile by the fire.  Cradle that mug of hot buttered rum, tuck in a heavy wool afghan, le...

Should Doctors tell the Truth?

Once upon a time, doctors did not tell the truth.   They did not actually lie, they said nothing at all.  They dictated to their patients what to do and what...

Do Lawsuits Increase Unneeded Testing?

At the center of the conversation between the medical and legal professions over the place of malpractice litigation in our society, is a debate regarding the e...

FDA Ban of Avastin – New Horizons

In 2008, the Federal Drug Administration gave provisional approval for the use of Avastin to treat advanced breast cancer.  On Nov. 18, the FDA revoked that de...

Stop the medical paparazzi

Once upon a time, it was your appendix.  You went in pain to the hospital and came out of the operating room with a scar on your belly.  As you lay there in t...

PSA, PAP, Mammogram – Confused?

Sometimes it seems as if doctors cannot make up their minds. Caffeine is bad for you…no it’s not.  Alcohol is good for you…no it’s not.  More carbohyd...

Scary Costume, No Mask Required

I do not go out on Halloween.  My kids are too old to Trick-or-Treat, candy hurts my teeth and my wife does not let me knock on stranger’s doors.  However, ...

The Doctor As Test Tube

The Hippocratic Oath commits a physician to do many things.  The pledge includes trying to prevent disease, protect privacy, respecting medicine as an art as w...

Med School Merger: An Oncologist’s View

If it seems to you that the merger of Rutgers University and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has been a long time coming, you are right.  It has not been ju...