Physicians and the “Wicked Problems” of Healthcare
For several years after I moved into administration I was a regular attendee of the twice yearly meetings of the Group Practice Improvement Network. GPIN’s description of itself is straight forward: GPIN is a nonprofit organization created in 1993 by the...
Healthcare Musings For 7 December 2018
7 December 2018 Dear Interested Readers, A Potpourri of Feelings and Observations Some weeks it is beyond my ability to finally decide on one subject for these notes. It occurs to me that most weeks this letter to you does not live up to its billing as “musings;”...
Is “Medicare For All” A Real Possibility?
Last Wednesday my wife and I drove down to Boston so that she could do a little holiday shopping with a friend while I saw the nurse practitioner who was going to do my periodic health review and give me a flu shot. Somewhere between New London and Concord on...
Healthcare Musings for 30 November 2018
30 November 2018 Dear Interested Readers, Hidden Tribes and the Future of Healthcare Last spring I read The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion. It was written by Jonathan Haidt who is a “moral and political”...
If You Care Enough You Will Try To Make A Difference
Most of the big issues that we fret about seem far beyond our individual ability to make a difference. It is hard for us to look at a big societal issue and imagine just how our individual contributions can matter. I worry about climate change and hope that my efforts...
Healthcare Musings for 23 November 2018
23 November 2018 Dear Interested Readers, A Birthday of Sorts On November 22, 2013 I resumed writing my weekly letter after a three week hiatus. As November had begun I was in the process of transitioning into retirement. The interim management team did not...
Michelle Obama’s and Robert Ebert’s Concerns About The Health of the Poor
Much has been written in recent years about medicine and the physician…A cursory survey of what has been written…permits the conclusion that medical science comes off rather well and the doctor’s image not so well. One gains the impression that doctors as...
Healthcare Musings For 16 November 2018
16 November 2018 Dear Interested Readers, Things To Ponder I have recently finished reading Jill Lapore’s These Truths: a History of the United States. Lepore finishes the book with a forward looking question: Barack Obama had urged...
Atul Gawande Tells Us Why We Hate Our Computers
This week Atul Gawande has published “The Upgrade” in The New Yorker. It is the best article I have read on computers in practice. The title in the online edition is the more appropriate “Why Doctors Hate Their Computers. He uses stories that feel like...Case Study – Elizabeth Mcarthy
A .pdf reader is required to read this document. You can obtain the latest version of Adobe Reader at: Get Adobe Reader