Rant: Shared Decision Making in Medicine
“Rant: Shared Decision Making in Medicine” – Psychology Today Magazine
-
-
3 Tips to Get to Know Your Doctor
Here is a USA Weekend piece on the type of advice I give in Critical Decisions – how to make stronger connections with your doctor.
-
Violation of Rights or Saving a Life?
A NY woman is suing her doctor for testing her for HIV without her consent, then telling her the result (which was positive). I recently participated in a HuffPost Live discussion on this doctor’s actions. Watch it here.
-
So Many Medicare Plans That People Want to Stay Put!
Republicans and Democrats agree that Medicare is in trouble – that if its costs keep rising faster than inflation, we will face insurmountable federal budget deficits. They also agree that the problem can be fixed. But that is where their agreement comes to an end, and where the Democrats hold a psychological advantage over Republicans……
-
Are Numbers a Barrier to Good Doctor-Patient Communication?
Helping patients understand their treatment choices is often no simple matter. In order for good communication to take place, doctors and patients must talk with each other in a language both parties can understand. Here is a piece in which I discuss an earnestly communicative hematologist describing the risks and benefits of treating leukemia to his patient.
-
Is Sex Reassignment Surgery a Basic Human Right?
I expect most of us agree that an incarcerated felon experiencing a heart attack should receive medical treatment, even if that treatment comes at taxpayers’ expense. The same probably goes for more preventive measures—blood pressure pills, cancer screening tests and the like. While serving out the sentence for their crimes, prisoners should not be forced…
-
Early Morning Radio Interview in Australia
Listen to this interview I conducted with a radio station in Australia. Good Q&A about Critical Decisions. Toughest part of the interview was remembering that although it was 4:30 in the afternoon my time, it was 6:30 the next morning for the Aussies!
-
Are Insurance Companies the Key to Lower Prices?
Two patients lie asleep on operating room tables, each with an inflamed appendix demanding to be relocated to a specimen jar. Two operations take place, each one lasting close to fifty minutes, each one performed by an experienced surgeon at a state-of-the-art U.S. hospital. One operation was priced at $1200 dollars. But the other one…
-
When Aggressive Medical Care Was More Dangerous Than Assassin's Bullets
Dr. Smith Townsend knelt on the filthy train station floor, the patient lying in front of him with a bullet wound in his back. The patient was clinically stable for the moment, so Townsend turned his attention to the wound, convinced a quick removal of the bullet would offer his patient the best chance of…
-
Great Piece on Critical Decisions
Here is a well-written piece by The Global Mail discussing Critical Decisions. Take a look.