In his final film performance, Paul Muni starred in the “Last Angry Man,” the story of Sam Abelman, a grumpy aging physician beset with patients who suffice and suffer in the crumbling urban landscape of 1950s Brooklyn. A capable diagnostician, Abelman is nonetheless losing to competition with young specialists. Unable to maintain his practice, Abelman …
Author: nephromaniac@gmail.com
Randomized Controlled Trials of COVID-19 Treatments: Why the World Needs Them
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, much has been said, often disparagingly, about the insistence by physicians and scientists for the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs.) Why, ask the naysayers, can’t we simply start using treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine, which show early promise? An RCT is a means of testing a hypothesis, such …
For Patients with Kidney Failure, “Medicare for All” Exists. What are the lessons?
In the debate about “Medicare for all,” what is known about the consequences – intended and unintended – of instituting publicly funded health care? For approximately 750,000 Americans currently with advanced kidney failure, Medicare funding has been in place for nearly fifty years. In 1972 – seven years after passage of the original legislation – …
Physician education: how your doctor’s training affects your health
A Missed Diagnosis: Our Badly Broken Physician Education System Seventy-eight-year-old Mr. S lay in his hospital bed, nearly comatose, having undergone a routine hip replacement the day before. I was the kidney specialist, consulted to evaluate his abrupt drop in urine output and kidney function. While examining him, my gaze settled on the balloon-like protrusion of …
The Republican War on the VA
The New York Times reports today that the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to transfer billions of dollars from veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, initiating “the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation.” The NY Times piece goes on: “If put into effect, the proposed rules — many of whose …
Mad as Hell
The following is a reprise of my column from the Providence (RI) Journal in September 2009. As we contemplate the potential impact of Texas District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling to strike to the Affordable Care Act, let’s consider life before the ACA (when this piece was written.). There is much more here to review. …