The following is a reader take by Edwin Leap.

My kids love to play Monopoly. They delight in acquiring properties, making money and crushing their siblings. They play with passion and savagery. That is, until recently. A couple of weeks ago I walked past the Monopoly board, spread on the floor between my children and their dear friend Tyler.

‘How’s it going guys?’

‘Great game, but we all ran out of money. Read more »

The first company that comes up with a effective drug for obesity is bound to make billions.

Prior failures notwithstanding, a trio of small pharmaceutical companies are trying to come up with the next great obesity pill. That means clinical studies are ongoing.

So, what’s it like to participate in such a trial? Ed Susman, a contributing writer at MedPage Today, was involved in one, and chronicled his experiences over the past Read more »

Will there ever be a scenario where doctors will accept a third-party entity restricting care to patients?

Pauline Chen talks about comparative effectiveness research, and finds that, when recommendations are transparent and based on solid evidence, some doctors will accept this more regulated paradigm.

Dr. Chen is completely right when she observes that there is a “sense that some of [a health insurer's] decisions are based Read more »

A rare occurrence where a routine ear piercing goes horribly wrong.

Keloids are fibrous growths that uncommonly occur in cases of wound healing. They present predominantly in blacks, and any type of skin piercing can affect those predisposed to the disease.

The lesions can be severely disfiguring and painful, and often recur after treatment. The first-line therapy is injection of steroids into the keloid, Read more »

I see close to 30 patients a day and generally stay on time.

So yes, it’s possible. With customer service being an important component of patient satisfaction, it pays to stay on time. That’s literally true, as you can also see more patients in a day when you’re punctual.

Most patients do not like spending the day at a physician’s office, and are pleasantly surprised when doctors are respectful of their time.

Here Read more »

An interesting question.

Amy Tuteur asks this question at a dinner party, and it elicits a whole host of responses. If a patient asks directly, the answer is easy. But what if the patient doesn’t ask? Is there an ethical requirement to disclose another physician’s error?

My first reaction, along with Dr. Tuteur’s, would be full disclosure, meaning that the patient should know everything that any doctor would want to know in Read more »

Many patients are fearful of taking prescription drugs.

And who can blame them? Drug advertisements prominently communicate a litany of side effects, and news reports routinely proclaim black box warnings and newly discovered complications.

Within this fog of negativity, patients have to realize the benefits of many medications, and this is what the WSJ points out (via the WSJ Health Blog).

Statins are the most obvious Read more »

Narrow-mindedness is one of the flaws of human cognition.  Often times, perceived conflicts of interests or bias may just be due to narrow-minded thought.

For instance, George Bush decided to invade Iraq.  While I do not want to argue the merits or demerits of the invasion, likely one of the reasons Bush decided to invade the country was because he wanted the U.S. to have a steady supply of oil.  Is oil that important?  From Bush’s Read more »