Episode 15: Three Patients, Three Families

As I finish a three-week rotation in the Intensive Care Unit, three patients with three families stick in my memory. Not so much for their individual cases, though each was memorable and heartbreaking in its way, but for how their needs and ours worked together - or failed to. Also, a trip to the mailbag for more questions from Nancy! Enjoy!

Episode 14: From the Newswires

In this week's episode, I go to the front pages of the last week, trying my hand at a little bit of political commentary from the medical perspective and trying to put some scientific sense into our reading of news headlines.

The two issues I talk about are based on articles about Dick Cheney's blood clot and the Walter Reed Scandal.

As always, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this week's episode!

The Future of Cardiac Surgery

The podcast has spent a lot of time on cardiac surgery, between my experiences and other people's questions. So many of you might be interested in the New York Times story today on the future of cardiac surgery...it's a bright one! To say this issue is high-stakes for medicine is putting it lightly indeed.

Episode 13: From Our Own Correspondents

You wrote, I read, and now here we are: an entire episode devoted to answering the questions of loyal listeners Cody (aka ZeroRocker) and Nancy, who wrote in with some great questions that I had a lot of fun answering. Want to know about why we need scrub techs? What's the relationship between surgeons and internal medicine doctors? Do you need calculus to be a doctor? And, of course, what are the romantic prospects for the modern single surgeon?? This is what I dream this podcast will become...an interactive place where we can have a real conversation about what it means to become a doctor in Modern Medicine. This is a great beginning!

One interesting tidbit given the recent podcasts on resources in medicine: in Episode 11 I talked about how we treat kids to the maximum of our abilities under all circumstances except for some very specific cases, such as babies born before 24 weeks gestation, who have no chance of survival. Well, that should teach me to speak in definitives (again): here's a story about a baby born even earlier that that...something of a one-off miracle, I think, but a good reminder that there's more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophies.

Be Well!

A note regarding advertising

Hi All,

Just a quick note: Google has pulled the ads from this site because of some overzealous clicking on the part of the loyal listeners. Thanks for your loyalty to the podcast, truly and sincerely, but should ads reappear here, I hope that you'll click on them only if they interest you, and only once. Thanks!

Episode 12: If you pull out all the stops, when do you end? (Part 2)

When Enough is Enough:

Continuing last week's theme of resource allocation, I talk about some times when doing everything we can is probably doing too much.

Next week, we go to the mailbag for a full episode of listener's questions. Stay tuned!

Episode 11: If you pull out all the stops, where do you end? (Part 1)

Resource allocation is a bloodless term of art for a question that's often very bloody. How do we decide which patients deserve the full force of modern medicine, and which do not? It's one of the perennial questions in medicine today, especially in a time and culture that cannot accept the principle of rationed health care.

I don't pretend to know the answer to these questions, but I take a shot at a couple of examples. This is the first part in what I imagine will be a two part series. In this episode: doing everything we can. Plus, a trip to the mailbag!

Look for Part 2, When Enough is Enough, next week (or so).

Episode 10: Where do I go from here?

Sometimes I feel like I'm at the end of my tether. Sometimes I wonder what exactly I'm tethered to. A special "inside my head" edition of the podcast!

Do you like what you're hearing? Subscribe by clicking the button below. And tell your friends, please! The podcast listenership has reached a plateau, and, being anonymous, I can't tell anyone about it. Thanks!

Episode 9: Back in the Saddle

Hello all,

At long last, I've recovered from illness and New Year's Eve and produced Episode 9. Look forward, as always, to your comments, questions, and answers! Can't wait to see where this podcast takes us in 2007!

Back for '07!

Happy New Year and the very Happiest of Holidays to all of you. And my apologies for failing to follow through on the ER Diaries...things went badly off track with the combination of family in town and a nasty illness. Both kept my non-work time pretty well filled...as my family spent their vacation spooning me diluted Gatorade to keep me vertical in the ER. I'll condense the remainder of my ER experience for you soon.

In the meantime, you should all read this essay from the New York Times...it's Truth.

Be well.

D, MD