Thomas Mueller, MD, an otolaryngologist in Everett, WA, is tired of gloom-and-doom messages and thinks it is time for physicians to take the lead. While problems in medicine are legion, the solution is simple but not easy. “As rapidly as possible, as many physicians as possible need to end all third-party relationships,” Dr Mueller writes. Patients should […]

Here’s an interesting and true story I know you will enjoy. Joel D Wallach, DVM, MD, nominee for the 1991 Nobel Prize in Medicine, mentioned in an address that hundreds of thousands of patients lose their lives unnecessarily in hospitals. He then stated that we have two “opportunities” to give our lives for our country […]

Sidney Goldstein, MD, emeritus head of cardiovascular medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, in an article in Internal Medicine News, remembers the pundits who predicted that MBA medicine was a phase and that America would focus on healthcare deficiencies, not ambulatory patients with “through-put” efficiencies. How wrong they were. The tidal wave of changes in the last […]

The Harris poll rated health care settings as slightly more dangerous than airplanes and the workplace and slightly safer than nuclear power plants. Many were speaking from personal experience. The results reflected that 40 percent of US adults have been involved personally or through a friend or relative with a medical accident or mistake while […]

Noteworthy articles from Humboldt, Del Norte, and San Joaquin Counties. The Bulletin of the Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society has been publishing a dialogue on an article: “Medical Marijuana: An Oxymoron,” by Denver Nelson, MD. Tate Minckler, MD, an editorial board member of The Bulletin, has expounded further on this proposal for legalization of marijuana which he […]

Doctors were once among the most dependable workers in America. However, they have been leaving their jobs in sharply rising numbers to collect disability benefits. In some instances, they are earning more on disability than in working, according to insurance executives. Insurance analysts believe that declining morale is a key factor in the growth of […]

At a recent conference on physician problems in the current healthcare environment, a number of participants discussed the questions: How did we get here and where do we go from here? Several physicians who suffered the brunt of Medicare investigations and had consequently been incarcerated and who were currently out on bail, gave personal testimony. […]

At the beginning of 2001, one of our doctors went to jail. It may have had nothing to do with the practice of medicine, but rather with law. Although there may be information that wasn’t available in the papers or in the facts as he discussed them, it is important for us to understand them. […]

The World Congress on Lung Health had physicians from about 60 countries represented. These are opportunities for me to get an overview of medicine as it is practiced throughout the world. A physician at the Congress from the United Kingdom stated that he is very unhappy with his medical practice in the National Health Service […]

Doctors are increasingly in “Hot Water.” But this may not be their fault. Let me tell you about an actual case that recently happened in a hospital. Dr Canfield, a surgeon, had an unexpected finding during an operation. It was a challenge in which he had not had a great deal of experience. He wasn’t […]