Video Introduction to Critical Decisions
Want a sneak peak into why I wrote Critical Decisions? Take a look at this 5 minute video. Feel free to send links to all your friends, so they won’t fall behind the times!
Want a sneak peak into why I wrote Critical Decisions? Take a look at this 5 minute video. Feel free to send links to all your friends, so they won’t fall behind the times!
The video below is not super high quality, but it captures a talk I gave in Lima Peru recently, a very personal talk that also reveals some of the dangers of assuming that medical decision making will go swimmingly well as long as patients are informed and empowered. Check it out. (Click here to view…
Since the recession hit hard a few years ago, health care expenditures have slowed dramatically. It now looks like, at least for medications, cost increases are making a comeback. For instance: Nexium, a heartburn drug, had a 7.8% price hike to a $262 average prescription in the first nine months of 2012. Enough to make…
Just three weeks earlier, she had noticed something strange about one of her breasts. An irregular shape. Her daughter brought her to the doctor, and soon the patient, I’ll call her Amanda, was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage “to be determined.” In fact, she was now in an oncologist’s office, learning what tests she would…
They both had shoulder pain, persistent despite weeks of physical therapy. Both received MRI examinations at reputable radiology facilities, looking for things like rotator cuff tears, labral disruptions and other anatomical abnormalities. What was different was the price they paid for the MRI, with one patient paying $1000 more than the other. Welcome to the…
Take a look at this wonderful video where a physician and a nurse explain how comic books, what they called “graphic medicine”, can improve medical care. You might also want to check out the website of the graphic medicine collaborative they have pulled together. (Click here to view comments)
The urologist broke the news: “Out of 12 cores, three were positive for cancer, so you have a small amount of cancer.” He would soon explain the treatment choices—surgery, radiation, or active surveillance (watching the cancer closely with blood tests and biopsies). He described each option in elaborate detail, because he knew that the “right…