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...
Ban Tanning Salons for Teens
This year, 2,650 people in New Jersey will be diagnosed with melanoma. Despite recent advances, many of them will die. The best protection is prevention. UV r...
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...
Improve Communication With Your Doctor
During the average office visit the physician listens patiently and compassionately for…14 seconds. That is how long it takes the doctor to interrupt. Thi...
Miracle Medicine Mess
In June, I had a hard conversation. I told my patient that breast cancer had spread to her bones. This was very bad news. Fortunately, I was able to rea...
The Sword of Cancer
60% of cancer patients in America are cured. This means that every year several hundred thousand people become “survivors.” However, to be “cured” o...
Of Public Health and Fluoride
I was pleased to note that the most recent meeting of the East Brunswick Water Policy Advisory Committee concluded that East Brunswick’s policy of fluoridatin...
The Wrong Words
She is a proud elderly woman, dressed always in the immaculate pink gabardine suit, 30 years past prime. She wears too much lipstick and rouge, applied carefu...
Cancer 101: PET Scans
Let us play doctor. Believe for a moment that you are sitting in your office advising a patient. On the patient’s chest X-ray is a half-inch spot. T...