Medicine
I have, without a doubt, the best brother-in-law ever, and his wife's parents are also, without a doubt, two of the best in-laws ever, as well as the owners of season tickets to the newest, biggest stadium in the National Football League. So it was that I found myself sitting in a front-row seat at the 50 yard-line of Cowboys Stadium on January 3rd, to watch my favorite football team shut out their division rival Philadelphia Eagles in the final regular game of the 2009-10 season.
The next weekend, I again watched the Cowboys rout the Eagles by 20 points in the first round of the playoffs, only this time on television. The stakes, the tactics, the players, and the outcome of this game were all very similar to those of the week before ... but the difference in perspective was dramatic. Whereas the week before I was able to see up close the sideline coaching, impromptu strategy discussions, and players going through their mental and physical warmups, the TV perspective focused almost exclusively on the action on the field.
This difference in perspective got me thinking about my goals for this blog, which I've now been writing for six months. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a health policy decision maker. Nor am I the typical family physician who labors for fifty-plus hours per week seeing a new patient every 12 to 15 minutes, catching up on paperwork over a nonexistent lunch break, and taking phone calls after hours. If you are looking for the 50,000 foot perspective or the view from the trenches of health care, Common Sense Family Doctor probably shouldn't be the first blog you read. Rather, I hope that my blog provides a 50-yard line perspective - a view of the critical intersection between health policy and clinical experience, where big ideas are tempered by the reality of everyday medical practice. Please feel free to let me know, publicly or privately, how well I'm succeeding.
- The "neurontin Legacy"
The January 8, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine includes an article by Landefeld and Steinman called “The Neurontin legacy – marketing through misinformation and manipulation”[1] that should be required reading for every physician,...
- The Best Recent Posts You May Have Missed
Every other month or so, I post a list of my top 5 favorite posts since the preceding "best of" list on this blog, for those of you who have only recently started reading Common Sense Family Doctor or don't read it regularly. Here are my favorites...
- Guest Blog: Residency Regulators Are Back
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD is the author of three books about her experiences as a general internist at NYU School of Medicine and serves as editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. The following post originally appeared on her blog on June 25, 2010....
- The Girl In The Well
While this blog takes every opportunity to champion the essential role of family physicians in reforming our broken health system, I readily admit that the ability of primary care to affect the most important health problems in the U.S. pales in comparison...
- Taking The Pulse Of Primary Care Medicine
Previous posts may have implied that restoring an adequate supply of U.S. primary care physicians is all about money - that is, less student loan debt and reducing the salary disparity between "front-line" clinicians and subspecialists. If only it were...
Medicine
The 50 yard-line perspective on health care
I have, without a doubt, the best brother-in-law ever, and his wife's parents are also, without a doubt, two of the best in-laws ever, as well as the owners of season tickets to the newest, biggest stadium in the National Football League. So it was that I found myself sitting in a front-row seat at the 50 yard-line of Cowboys Stadium on January 3rd, to watch my favorite football team shut out their division rival Philadelphia Eagles in the final regular game of the 2009-10 season.
The next weekend, I again watched the Cowboys rout the Eagles by 20 points in the first round of the playoffs, only this time on television. The stakes, the tactics, the players, and the outcome of this game were all very similar to those of the week before ... but the difference in perspective was dramatic. Whereas the week before I was able to see up close the sideline coaching, impromptu strategy discussions, and players going through their mental and physical warmups, the TV perspective focused almost exclusively on the action on the field.
This difference in perspective got me thinking about my goals for this blog, which I've now been writing for six months. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a health policy decision maker. Nor am I the typical family physician who labors for fifty-plus hours per week seeing a new patient every 12 to 15 minutes, catching up on paperwork over a nonexistent lunch break, and taking phone calls after hours. If you are looking for the 50,000 foot perspective or the view from the trenches of health care, Common Sense Family Doctor probably shouldn't be the first blog you read. Rather, I hope that my blog provides a 50-yard line perspective - a view of the critical intersection between health policy and clinical experience, where big ideas are tempered by the reality of everyday medical practice. Please feel free to let me know, publicly or privately, how well I'm succeeding.
- The "neurontin Legacy"
The January 8, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine includes an article by Landefeld and Steinman called “The Neurontin legacy – marketing through misinformation and manipulation”[1] that should be required reading for every physician,...
- The Best Recent Posts You May Have Missed
Every other month or so, I post a list of my top 5 favorite posts since the preceding "best of" list on this blog, for those of you who have only recently started reading Common Sense Family Doctor or don't read it regularly. Here are my favorites...
- Guest Blog: Residency Regulators Are Back
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD is the author of three books about her experiences as a general internist at NYU School of Medicine and serves as editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. The following post originally appeared on her blog on June 25, 2010....
- The Girl In The Well
While this blog takes every opportunity to champion the essential role of family physicians in reforming our broken health system, I readily admit that the ability of primary care to affect the most important health problems in the U.S. pales in comparison...
- Taking The Pulse Of Primary Care Medicine
Previous posts may have implied that restoring an adequate supply of U.S. primary care physicians is all about money - that is, less student loan debt and reducing the salary disparity between "front-line" clinicians and subspecialists. If only it were...