by wmfa | Apr 1, 2017 | Health
On Overdiagnosis I highly recommend Dr. Gilbert Welch’s book “Over-diagnosed: making people sick in the pursuit of health.” In it he talks about patients getting caught up in a cascade of overdiagnosis. I once had a patient who went to the ER for an upper respiratory...
by wmfa | Mar 1, 2017 | Health
On Antibiotic Resistance I completed my family practice residency in Latrobe in 1999. In my last year our practice admitted three cases of rheumatic fever to hospital. I was the senior resident on two of those cases. Rheumatic fever comes from an untreated strep...
by wmfa | Feb 1, 2017 | Health
On Health Care Spending The oldest patient I ever had lived to be over 100 years old. She was small and frail a bit stooped, but was she remarkably healthy with no real medical problems, and her mind was delightfully sharp. In the last year of her life she developed...
by wmfa | Jan 1, 2017 | Health
On the Perils of Prescribing Before my daughter entered medical school I urged her to study hard and read widely so as to kill as few patients as possible. Her eyes grew wide – but we save lives! Yes, but we also kill, both through human error and by following the...
by wmfa | Dec 1, 2016 | Health
On Diabetes Management In the September issue of Family Practice News the headline reads “Can It Be True: New scientific evidence doesn’t support tight glycemic control.” Actually the evidence is not new, but studies show that it can take up to 17 years for an obvious...
