Some Ideas on Information
This is a short post about some important concepts for this blog. For purposes of this discussion, and others ongoing on what it means to be an informed patient, let’s consider the following: 1....
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On a Velázquez Portrait, and the Value of Expertise
This is an unusual entry into a discussion on the limits of patient empowerment. In late December the Times ran a story, beginning on its front page, about a portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
View ArticleTV Meets Real Life Oncology, and Anticipating the MCATs
Yesterday I wrote on some tough decisions facing a TV show‘s protagonist. She’s got metastatic melanoma and might participate in a clinical trial when the show resumes. Now imagine you’re an...
View ArticleTwo Minds on Medical Thinking
I read Your Medical Mind in hard cover, the old-fashioned way. This book, on how patients think, offers a penetrable, informed and anecdote-riddled discussion of how people make health-related...
View ArticleBlood and Hip Surgery: New Study Supports Fewer Transfusions
Under the radar, over the holiday week, the NEJM published a report on transfusion requirements in older adults who surgical hip repair. The main finding is that most patients, including the elderly...
View ArticleThis Week’s Triple, Tough Dose of Real Stories on Women with Cancer
Dear Readers, It’s been a tough week on the breast cancer front. Many in the community first learned that Ellen Moskowitz, a former leader at the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN), died. Ellen...
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Don’t Judge Her! An Essay on Angelina Jolie, BRCA, Cancer Risk and Informed...
Angelina Jolie at Cannes in 2011 (Wikimedia Commons, attribution: Georges Biard) Before this morning, I never wondered what it’s like to walk in Angelina Jolie’s shoes. Like many, I woke up to the news...
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A Theoretical Note to My Students, On a Breast Cancer Case and Future Learning
Last week my students – who are, necessarily, abstracted here – studied breast cancer. How the course goes is that we meet in a small group and, each week, work through a case by Problem Based...
View ArticleGet Cancer. Lose Your Job?
Let’s start with this fact: If you are employed and get a breast cancer diagnosis, it’s less likely you’ll be working at your job four years later. A newly-published study of women in Los Angeles and...
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