I Got Hearing Aids For The First Time — And There Was 1 Surprising Side Effect
“I can actually see the shapes of the leaves on the trees!” I exclaimed to my doctor while gazing out the window. I was 12 years old and just got my first pair of glasses. My vision had been impaired long enough for me to not realize what I was missing. The same thing happened […]
Dr. Barbie Will See You Now, but Only If You’re a Pediatric Patient
Barbie can be a doctor, but she rarely specializes or works with adults, and she almost never meets clinical safety standards for clothing or personal protective equipment (PPE), a quantitative study found. Of 80 Barbie medical professional dolls, 53 (66%) worked with children as a pediatrician, pediatric dentist, or even a pediatric ophthalmologist, Katherine Klamer, […]
Make the Diagnosis: Is This a Nothing Burger — or Something Much Worse?
Presentation A 21-year-old man visited his doctor concerned about an asymptomatic blackish lesion that had developed on his left heel, 1 week prior soon after a college basketball tournament. On examination, a stippled, deeply violaceous, and blackish patch with overlying scale was seen on his plantar heel. He had no history of dermatological disease. Can […]
My Son’s Brain Tumor Was Benign. We Thought We Were In The Clear — But We Were Wrong.
The author’s son consulting with his doctor, Eugene Hwang, associate chief of oncology at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, during treatment in 2020. Courtesy of Adina Ciment I saw the mass on my son’s brain from the small booth in the CT room. It didn’t take much to realize that the golf-ball-sized circle on one […]
Opinion | You Choose: Food or Medications?
The phone rings at 2 a.m. The resident doctor on call that night is contacted to discuss a Latinx patient who presented with seizures. He had missed his medication for about a week. He had recently been laid off and lost insurance coverage. He couldn’t afford to refill his eslicarbazepine acetate (Aptiom) prescription. This was […]
My Patient Was Smart And Kind. He Was Also A Conspiracy Theorist — And It May Have Killed Him.
“The doctor rattled off a list of alternatives to screen for lung cancer: CT scan? X-ray? PET scan? Chet’s responses were ‘no,’ ‘no’ and ‘hell no.’” shapecharge via Getty Images Chet hunches forward rubbing his temples, as though trying to anesthetize the pain in his head. His 56th birthday is less than two months away, […]
Opinion | Get Your Own Doctor, Mom!
Let me tell you that being a doctor in the family can be a tricky business! On the one hand, you’re the go-to person for all things medical, so you’re never short on people to talk to at family gatherings. On the other hand, you’re also the go-to person for all things medical, so you’re […]
Opinion | Perfectionism Will Kill You
Every doctor wants to be perfect. We want to make sure our diagnosis is perfect. Our treatment plan is perfect, and our outcome will be perfect. Patients want the perfect doctor. They want us to get it right on the first try, each and every time. The problem is perfectionism, as hard as we try […]
Opinion | ‘The Average Doctor Is Doing 41 of These a Week’: What We Heard This Week
“The average doctor is doing 41 of these a week.” — American Medical Association President Jack Resneck Jr., MD, discussing the large increase in prior authorization requests over the several years. “They’re not looking holistically. They’re not even thinking of it.” — Brittany Walsh-Reed, PharmD, BCPS, an independent consultant in Cleveland, on the paucity of […]
Opinion | Is Diabetes Bad for the Environment?
“The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats actual sickness.” – Chinese Proverb The management of diabetes today requires an understanding of the concept of the circular economy in eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials at their highest level, and regenerating nature. Today, we saw […]