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Cigarettes Should Cost $25 a Pack
By Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas Henry David Thoreau said, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” We have hacked at healthcare costs for...
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To DNR or Not to DNR
By James Salwitz, MD Here is a little appreciated fact: Patients cannot order medical care; they can only accept or refuse it. Only a doctor can order medical treatment. In an extreme medical...
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The Only Way Out of the Health Care Wilderness
By William Bestermann, MD The landmark 2001 document from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM), Crossing the Quality Chasm, should have guided us out of the healthcare cost-quality crisis. It argued that...
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Can Big Data Save My Dad From Cancer?
By Colin Hill My father, Foster Hill, has stage III prostate cancer. At 69 years old, he is a quiet man who was often told in his younger days that he resembled Muhammad Ali. He immigrated in his...
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Advances In Cancer 2012
By JAMES SALWITZ, MD The 30,000 member American Society of Clinical Oncology is the world’s leading group of cancer physicians. ASCO is dedicated to curing cancer, supporting research, quality care,...
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Heroes and Villains
By Rob Lamberts, MD “Lance Armstrong is a bad guy who has done some very good things.” These are the words of a sports radio personality I listened to yesterday. He was obviously commenting on the...
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About Time? Smokers Face Tough New Rules Under Obamacare
By Dan Diamond The Affordable Care Act contains a number of provisions intended to incent “personal responsibility,” or the notion that health care isn’t just a right — it’s an obligation. None of...
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Replacing Lance
By JAMES SALWITZ, MD We need heroes. Heroes show us light in the darkness, the way to the miraculous and ignite a fire in our soul to survive. They prove what is truly possible, through the fog of...
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Choosing Alternative Medicine
By James Salwitz, MD After a terribly painful and debilitating illness, Steve died. He had been treated for Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Disease with a series of intense therapies including German enzymes,...
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Truth At the End of Life
By Elaine Waples Most of us have spent some time thinking about our own deaths. We do it with a sense of dreadful curiosity, but then we push it aside with “well, we’ve all got to go sometime.” Unlike...
View ArticleHow a Real Writer Dies
By Michael L. Millenson True to his proudly claimed Chicago newspaperman roots, famed movie critic Roger Ebert remained a writer literally up until the moment he died. “A lot of people have asked me...
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Driving Front Line Innovation In Health Care
By David Duncan Jennifer Stinson was a nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto who enjoyed brainstorming new ideas for improving care, especially for the kids with cancer she...
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Caution: Wellness Programs May Be Hazardous to Your Health
By Al Lewis The exponential growth in wellness programs indicates that Corporate America believes that medicalizing the workplace, through paying employees to participate in health risk assessments...
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Did Angelina Do the Wrong Thing?
By SHIRIE LENG, MD A woman’s mother dies at age 56. A blood test is done. The woman finds out she has a genetic pre-disposition to cancer. She takes what action she thinks she needs to take. A familiar...
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Thank You, Angelina
By JAMES SALWITZ, MD Dear Ms. Jolie, Thank you for your bravery and leadership in the battle against breast cancer. In a small way, through my patients, I understand the challenge and pain it took not...
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Why Is the Doctor Angry?
By James Salwitz, MD I had a patient this week that really screwed up his medical care when he experienced a predicted side effect of curative chemotherapy. Despite clear instructions and access to...
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The New HPV Guidelines. Balancing Benefits and Harms of Cervical Cancer...
By Margaret Polaneczky, MD It’s fitting that this year’s ACOG meeting was held in New Orleans, because navigating the 2013 ASCCP Pap Smear Management Guidelines presented there feels like trying to...
View ArticleN = 1 My Experience with the New Health Care System
By Robert Fogerty, MD “You look nice today. People don’t come to chemo in suits very often.” The friendly and familiar receptionist mentioned as I was checking out, the always full jar of lemon...
View ArticleIn Praise of Lisa Bonchek Adams, Breast Cancer Expert
By Brian Loew The two columns by Bill and Emma Keller about Lisa Bonchek Adams unleashed fury this week from supporters who questioned the manner in which Adams, who has metastatic breast cancer,...
View ArticleThat Vitamin There Could Kill You
By James Salwitz, MD Once-upon-a-time, when a patient said they were taking a vitamin, most doctors would simply shrug their shoulders and say, “well, I guess its OK, it couldn’t hurt.” There was...
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