The NY Times Well blog has a podcast of Dr. John Hickner, professor of family medicine at the University of Chicago, discussing why patients should always call their doctors to follow up after having a medical test done. We have previously discussed the issue of medical test results getting lost in transmission: the patient will….
Continue ReadingDoctor-Patient Relationship
Common Testing Mistakes at the Family Doctor’s Office
A new study from the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care, and discussed in the NY Times Well blog, reveals common testing mistakes by primary-care doctors. Of course, the same kinds of errors can happen in hospitals and other health care settings. Out of close to the 1,000 mistakes experienced by 590 patients, the….
Continue ReadingRules for Doctors and Patients
Tara Parker-Pope recently wrote two articles discussing fundamental rules for doctors and for patients. The rules for doctors can be boiled down to respect for the patient’s feelings and understanding that they did not come to the office in order to waste the doctor’s time for the sheer pleasure of it. Dr. Robert Lamberts, who….
Continue ReadingSenator Kennedy’s Health Care and Yours
It is instructive and interesting to read about Senator Edward Kennedy’s treatment for his brain tumor. The linked article describes the change in direction between May 20th of this year, when Kennedy’s brain cancer was first disclosed and surgery was not discussed as a possible treatment, and two weeks later, when neurosurgeons performed a “successful”….
Continue ReadingDoctor-Patient Relationships Turn Sour
Tara Parker-Pope recently had an article on how fewer and fewer patients trust their doctors. About one in four patients feel that their physicians sometimes expose them to unnecessary risk, according to data from a Johns Hopkins study published this year in the journal Medicine. And two recent studies show that whether patients trust a….
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