General

Some music thoughts

June 27, 2009

Those who follow me on Twitter know that I went to the beach to give a talk this week. On the trip down (4.5 hours) and back I listened to my trusty IPod Nano. While at the beach I took a first listen to Wilco (The Album). These were the key observations from all that [...]

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How large is the pie?

April 29, 2009

  My son has joined the world of blogging.  He blogs about urban planning and the economy.  I highly recommend this thought-provoking piece he wrote this week – Where is the pie?  It has nothing to do with medicine directly, but health care is part of the pie.

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Understanding the financial collapse

December 13, 2008

  No, you have not stumbled onto the wrong blog.  Last night we had dinner with 2 other couples.  On the drive to the restaurant we were discussing the financial collapse.  One friend, a successful businessman, recommended this article.  I had heard of Liar’s Poker, and actually had heard of this article.  Having just read it, [...]

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Politics – Obama vs Clinton – leadership vs. micromanagement

February 20, 2008

I am going way outside my comfort zone in this rant.  If I make a fool of myself, please tell me. Like many Americans I am fascinated with the Obama/Clinton competition.  I have temporarily switched from Mike and Mike in the morning to Morning Joe.  In watching this ongoing contest, I have my own theory.  [...]

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Race relations in Alabama – good news

January 12, 2007

I live in a suburb of Birmingham. When I moved to Alabama, I remember the looks that I received from friends and colleagues. I often joke (but as most jokes understand the underlying truth) that prejudice against Alabama is the only politically correct prejudice in the US. This article makes me very happy. My experience [...]

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A tribute to my greatgrandfather

June 19, 2006

While this is generally a medical blog, today I veer. During a recent visit to my parents house, my mother gave me a copy of a program from a concert celebrating my greatgrandfather’s 70th birthday. Mostly for myself and my family, I publish the text of that program. Mordechai Golinkin’s life has been bound with [...]

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The messy factor

January 4, 2006

Yesterday I cited a NY Times essay on the messiness of patient care – It ain’t always pretty At the time, I knew that I wanted to comment, but struggled, so I delayed. Later that day I wrote the piece on clinical judgment. Last night as I pondered these two posts, I realized how interrelated [...]

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A new look

January 4, 2006

I have decided to revamp the look of my blog. I guess this is a bit like changing ties. Please note that you have control over the colors used with this new theme. I have switched to a 2 column theme to make the look a bit cleaner. I hope you like these changes, but [...]

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On Clinical Judgment

January 3, 2006

Over the past year, I have thought extensively about the concept of quality health care. I have participated in research designed to measure one aspect of quality, i.e., adherence to known quality indicators. Examples of this version of quality include: Foot exam in diabetes mellitus Aspirin for patients with known CAD Colon cancer screening in [...]

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It ain’t always pretty – a recollection

January 3, 2006

Cleaning Up the Mess of Medicine in the Pages of Posterity As I headed up to the laboratory to deliver our hard-won tubes, it occurred to me that in the event our patient proved to have some unusual infection and we wrote up his case for a medical journal, the last surreal 30 minutes would [...]

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