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Index 2003: Letters to the Editor

January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - 2002 index - 2004 index

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Dec. 22/29

• Virginia experiencing liability rate increases that threaten patient care
• Article underscores need for return to teaching compassion in medicine
• There can be two sides in role model approach to physical fitness
• Physicians should accept that patients see them as role models

Dec. 15

• AAFP president: Fitness initiative's goal is simply to improve lives
• "Squeaky wheels" not worth the effort it takes to please them
• FSMB and NBME: We disagree with AMA board chair on clinical skills exam
• Article should have made clear the distinctions in ICD-10 coding system

Dec. 8

• Want more primary care physicians? Don't force resident matches, just increase the pay
• Electronic prescribing would give medicine a push to legibility
• Office-based surgery study should not be generalized to dermatology
• County exec: Insurer audits result in physicians not giving out samples

Dec. 1

• While medicine caters to spoiled patients, the truly ill go wanting
• Payment should be an option for living organ donors
• Dr. McAtee a role model in more ways than one

Nov. 24

• Weight-loss issues include matters of patient -- and doctor -- autonomy
• Many physicians ignore genetic and physiologic factors of obesity
• Physician's weight not relevant; rather, it's the ability to help patients

Nov. 17

• Committing suicide while depressed is easier when a gun is at hand
• Financial barriers hinder physicians who want to volunteer abroad
• Cedars-Sinai revitalizing M&M conferences with 'Matrix' approach

Nov. 10

• CRNAs are not as qualified as physicians -- especially in a crisis
• Skipping the basics is bad medicine, both globally and closer to home

Nov. 3

• Texas tort caps victory is a model for physician grassroots advocacy
• Opting out of third-party payment is key to preserve profession's integrity

Oct. 27

• Counseling is doctor's role, even if patient would rather not hear it
• Opt out of HIPAA
• In abortion, the ethical stance is not to refer but to counsel against it
• Are physicians the only ones always expected to run on time?
• More than two physicians have scaled every high point in all 50 states

Oct. 20

• Enough already! Primary care doctors bombarded with extra tasks
• Medications have a sound place when treating patients for addiction
• Physicians who oppose abortion should not have to aid the act by referral

Oct. 13

• Philip Morris USA: We want FDA regulation and to keep "cigarettes as legitimate adult products"
• Snowbird stonewall -- only two letters on migrating patients in 33 years
• No bugs infest this Apple
• Sign says it all

Oct. 6

• Is ED trip really necessary? In many cases the answer is clearly no
• Big blackout underscored need for hospitals to generate own power
• Find a way to teach residents without giving them "excessive experience"

Sept. 22/29

• Alcoholism article should have mentioned 12-step programs
• Time to sue no-show patients?
• Socialized medicine equals low pay, lack of benefits and rationed care
• Driving competence should not be decided in the doctor's office
• Physicians can learn more about vision of older drivers

Sept. 15

• Waiting room snacks and Internet access? Not at this practice
• Standardized test is not appropriate way to gauge clinical skills
• Long after the fact, value found in the daily duties of residency
• Doctors who won't perform abortions still have the obligation to refer

Sept. 8

• Sometimes a patient must be told that no appointment is available
• Long waiting times can often be traced to careless patient actions
• Give lawmakers and other officials a taste of their own medicine

Sept. 1

• Questionable traditions have led to long resident work hours
• PAs can do most of the tasks typically performed by residents
• AMNews paints doctors as wimps
• Doctors should reject any PPO demand to pay a fee in order to get paid

Aug. 25

• Resident work restrictions call for innovative solutions
• Rigid residency work limits send the wrong message about patient care
• Health plan hesitation on tests hasn't been a hindrance at this practice

Aug. 18

• Hard enough providing care, without having to figure out how to get paid
• Corporate-style care incompatible with how medicine should be practiced
• PPOs may have gone to the source when learning to shave physician fees

Aug. 11

• HIPAA intruding on patient care and reasonable information-sharing
• Childhood illness need not result in a "victim mentality"

Aug. 4

• Resident work hour limits are compromising patient safety
• Often missing in medical education is the concept that "mind and body are always unalterably intertwined"
• Clinical skills test merits support
• Be aware of state laws governing physician assistant practice

July 28

• Medical ethicist: My quote was reported out of context by AMNews
• Much progress yet to be made in medical communication
• Peel-off privacy solution
• Boutique hospitals are a threat to Medicare's price-shifting scheme

July 21

• Tort crisis has made him a locum for now, and maybe unemployed later
• Aetna settlement bodes well for improvement of health care system
• Don't like managed care execs' pay? Support socialized medicine

July 14

• Balancing personal and professional lives an important goal for all doctors
• Physician bonuses for meeting clinical goals may pit doctor against patient
• Medicine's recruitment message should focus on coming advances
• Web addresses should have gone to candidates' policies, not fund pitches

July 7

• Consider affirmative action in light of history and health disparities
• Direct-access testing is a business with little benefit to patients
• Foreign physicians earn right to train and work here
• Reported number of NP graduates disputed by nursing educators

June 30

• African-American patients want black doctors available to treat them
• Test scores are overrated predictor for med school and elsewhere
• Late-term abortion not rare

June 23

• Irritating colleagues not a matter of gender, but of ducking responsibilities
• Lesson from female physicians: All doctors must learn to take care of selves
• Rhode Island starting statewide electronic prescribing initiative

June 16

• Mini-med schools reduce art and science of medicine to entertainment
• Registration information a proper request, even in a "free society"
• How many physicians can be sued by one overweight patient?
• Add radiologists to the list of doctors vulnerable to risk-factor lawsuits

June 2/9

• Instead of objecting, foreign doctors should be "humble and grateful"
• Bush's policies are fiscally unsound

May 26

• If doctor can be sued over patient obesity, what else is headed to court?
• Medical boards should get tougher on expert medical witnesses
• Doctor's experience with female colleagues "has been irritating and disappointing"
• Onus was on surgeon, not anesthesiologist, to call off operation

May 19

• A brutally long work week is bad for the resident and for the patient
• Assisted suicide is never appropriate, can't be adequately regulated
• Canadian-filled prescriptions not the problem; unaffordable medicine is

May 12

• When healing is out of the question, assisted suicide is a way to help
• Physician-assisted suicide is an act of collaboration, not of failure
• An instinct about a patient's husband that proved to be right

May 5

• Resident work-hour limits make sense
• Replace tort warfare with a no-fault system styled after workers' comp
• Retired from practice, and feeling lucky to be away from it
• IMG leader now supports Clinical Skills Assessment examination

April 28

• Allow physicians a tax deduction for the cost of uncompensated care
• New York's scope-of-practice law says no to psychologist prescribing
• Reproductive rights group: Federal abortion law will not stop at D&X

April 21

• Grads rejecting primary care because it's the "stepchild" of medicine
• The problem now with paperless: Systems take up too much doctor time
• Voice recognition is key to a successful electronic medical record

April 14

• Early morning reflections on how medical practice has ceased to be fun
• Physician assistants: Physician oversight is central to our role
• Government ups fees to cover its costs, but fixes physician prices

April 7

• Resident hour limits create an undesirable "shift work" mentality
• Electronic medical record is a boon -- not a bust -- at this practice
• Dominating insurers must be stopped from forcing doctors into bad deals

March 24/31

• Replace jury with expert panels in medical liability cases
• Tort crisis warrants a 200,000-doctor march on the nation's capital
• EMR will relegate pen and paper to a place beside chisel and stone

March 17

• EMRs not perfect but "can succeed in real-life, busy practices"
• Not all EMRs are created equal
• Federalize medical licenses

March 17

• EMRs not perfect but "can succeed in real-life, busy practices"
• Not all EMRs are created equal
• Federalize medical licenses

March 10

• Caps not the panacea for tort crisis; other changes are what's needed
• Electronic medical records, for now, compare poorly with paper charts

March 3

• Follow Ohio's lead in review of a "good faith basis" for liability claims
• Slogans for picketing physicians

Feb. 24

• Abortion language clouds what the procedure really is
• Foolish to compare possibility of abuse with certain death by abortion
• Liability the problem? No, it's getting the money to cover the cost of insurance
• Medicare double-whammy -- it sets what private-sector plans pay, too

Feb. 17

• FSMB: Don't compromise quality in effort to increase access to care
• Will a 3-year deal for imported Mexican physicians last a lifetime?

Feb. 10

• Look to Ayn Rand title for strategy on how to reclaim medical profession
• La.'s Medicaid spending strategy helps explain town vs. gown tensions
• He found SOAPware a "strong," "reliable" electronic medical record

Feb. 3

• Agriculture is a significant factor in antibiotic overuse and resistance
• The FDA should not meddle with dietary supplements
• Long-term strategies needed to help medically underserved Latinos

Jan. 27

• Poor tax planning can demolish profit from owning a medical office building
• True magnitude of Medicaid access problem is reflected in how sparse appointments are rationed

Jan. 20

• Health care is too special to be treated as a marketplace commodity
• Consider the human cost before opting for new technology

Jan. 13

• Ambulatory surgery centers: Our Medicare payments have not been properly adjusted for inflation
• Medicare patients should be advocates for proper physician pay
• Tanning illustration suggested skin cancer, not recreation
• Managed care pay cuts and the medical liability crisis

Jan. 6

• Report what Medicare pays its workers vs. how it pays doctors
• Act now to block dangerous trend of nonphysician practice of medicine
• Arbitration over "cybersquatting" a practical alternative to a lawsuit
• 12 tips to improve communication with hearing-impaired patients

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7% of doctors prescribe electronically. Read more

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