The Dirty Secret About Medical Errors
As physicians we see medicine as a science. We think of ourselves as rational, evidence-based practitioners. But we are far less rational than we tell our patients and ourselves that we are. More
Can We Let Doctors Be Human?
Is our vision clouded because we are so immersed in the world of sickness? Is it because this helps reinforce the power dynamic that has kept patients “in their place” for centuries? Or might it be because, like our patients we doctors are scared down to our bones? If we were to see our patients living the lives that we live, then there would be nothing to separate them from us. And then we could easily become them. More
An Epidemic of Disillusioned Doctors?
“That’s it,” I thought, after an overwhelming morning in clinic. “I quit!†It’s a thought that crosses the minds of the majority of doctors, it seems. A survey of more than 13,000 doctors found that more than two-thirds feel negatively about their profession. More
Lancet review of “What Doctors Feel”
What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine is as close to a page-turner as a clinician’s story is likely to become. What Doctors Feel deserves to be well received and widely read. More
When Doctors Feel Fear
I remember the first time I laid eyes on an actual amygdala, after slicing through a brain with a repurposed kitchen knife in neuroanatomy class. That’s it? I thought. That nickel-size splotch tucked below the temporal lobes was the seat of my fears? It was monumentally underwhelming and even lacked the poetic almond shape that its Latin name connotes.
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New York Times review of “What Doctors Freel”
This book’s hallmark is honesty, particularly when it comes to the emotional fallout of her medical mistakes. More
Fear is a Primal Emotion
This was it—the first code I was in charge of. After two years of racing to codes as a first- and second-year resident, now suddenly, the code was mine. I was the one to call the shots, to direct the care, to assign the jobs, to make the decisions….Shit! More
Tolerating Ambiguity
When faced with ambiguous situations, most of us—quite humanly—want to run for the tantalizing veneer of the certain. We doctors pride ourselves in the scientific girders of modern medicine. Much of the time, though, we function in an ambiguous zone, without clear-cut answers. More
Uncertainty Is Hard for Doctors
As a group, doctors dislike ambiguity. But much of the time, therefore, we function in an ambiguous zone, without clear-cut answers. More
The Darkest Year of Medical School?
Next month, your future doctor will take the first steps into clinical medicine. I am not talking about the first day of internship (though that also happens on July 1), but the monumental transition that medical students make at the halfway point of medical school from the classroom years to the clinical years. More
Medical Errors and the Culture of Shame
It was probably our eighth or ninth admission that day, but my intern and I had given up counting. I was midway through my medical residency, already a master of efficiency. You had to be, or you’d never keep up. More
Press Release for “What Doctors Feel”
“What Doctors Feel”–coming on June 4th 2013. Called “insightful and invigorating,” “eloquent and honest.” “An invaluable guide.” Pre-orders available. Book Launch on June 5th at Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side More
Creativity in Medicine
“What are you doing creatively these days?” It’s not a question you hear commonly. Medicine is a field with a strong history of creativity, but its daily practice feels less and less creative More
Review of “What Doctors Feel”
“An essential book. Each chapter is like a journey into the hearts and minds of clinicians who are struggling with emotions triggered by the realities of medicine.” More
Review of “What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine”
“An essential book. Each chapter is like a journey into the hearts and minds of clinicians who are struggling with emotions triggered by the realities of medicine.” More
