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David Elpern
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Forty-one years ago, physician-essayist Lewis Thomas proposed that applicants to medical school who were traditional premed science majors be considered last, if at all, for admission. Instead, he wrote, preference should be given to students who concentrated on “some central, core discipline, universal within the curricula of all the colleges,... Continue reading
Posted Aug 28, 2019 at Medical Keepers
Notes on the Effects of Morphine For full essay Download Notes on the Effects of Morphine By Francis W. Peabody From The Caring Physician The Life of Dr. Francis W. Peabody By Oglesby Paul The following unpublished essay is “[a]n example of how FWP, the scientist/physician, used his terminal illness... Continue reading
Posted Mar 20, 2019 at Keepers
Posted Mar 8, 2019 at Keepers
Here is the PDF of A Mentor's Legacy by Ranjana Srivastava: Download Srivastava Mentors NEJM Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2019 at Medical Keepers
For full article, please: Continue reading
Posted Nov 25, 2018 at Keepers
Link for Miranda-Med.blogspot.com Download Dr. Sahib (NEJM Perspective essay, 11.22.18) Continue reading
Posted Nov 22, 2018 at Keepers
Lewis Thomas, New England Journal of Medicine, May 25, 1978 This is a classic article by Lewis Thomas. Sadly, little has changed in the past 40 years! If interested, ou can: Download L. Thomas Pre-medical Curriculum Continue reading
Posted Jun 29, 2018 at Medical Keepers
Puddldoc wrote: Interesting article--those same physicians are notorious for bullying nurses. I once worked with a surgeon who constantly yelled at, intimidated young nurses. I despised him. One time, I actually heard him tell a new doc " Be sure that they are afraid of you--they will take better care of YOUR patients if they are afraid of incurring your wrath". Needless to say, I wasn't intimidated by him and I did everything I could to protect the younger nurses. It has always amazed me that the medical community accepts these behaviors. Why don't their fellow physicians step in and stop it?
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This is how I killed my mother. On 30 October 2017 I had just landed at Heathrow from Melbourne. I had the strangest feeling I should not go directly to bed. I wondered if I should visit my mother, Margaret Black, a 92 year old retired anaesthetist living very independently... Continue reading
Posted Jun 1, 2018 at Keepers
Inappropriate medical activity is directly proportional to the gravity of the patient’s illness, and inversely proportional to the likelihood of real or lasting therapeutic benefit. This inappropriate medical activity can be called medical hysteria. In Medical Hysteria, JM Naish, The Lancet 1970 Download Medical Hysteria Naish Continue reading
Posted Feb 25, 2018 at Medical Keepers
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This classic article was handed to me in 1976 when I started my residency in dermatology at Johns Hopkins. It has been helpful many times over the years and is pertinent to survival in academia, medicine and many other situations in life. V. Cousteau is a pseudonym. The author was... Continue reading
Posted Dec 3, 2016 at Medical Keepers
by Sébastien Moine, BMJ 2016; 355 (Published 28 November 2016) Mapping the territory of human suffering with only clinical tools, diagnostic tests, and biomedical concepts is difficult, if not impossible.1 Or to say it differently, it doesn’t seem easy, or reasonable, to answer the questions of how to live a... Continue reading
Posted Dec 3, 2016 at Medical Keepers
by Sébastien Moine, BMJ 2016; 355 (Published 28 November 2016) Mapping the territory of human suffering with only clinical tools, diagnostic tests, and biomedical concepts is difficult, if not impossible.1 Or to say it differently, it doesn’t seem easy, or reasonable, to answer the questions of how to live a... Continue reading
Posted Dec 3, 2016 at Medical Keepers
From Bonnie M. "Dr. Elpern, Just to let you know I had a similar experience when I was at UMass Medical in Worcester for a week. The doctors are very good but have so many patients that they do not have a lot of time to be with you. There was an amazing lady who brought the food and happiness to me. Being from Africa her children are going to high school or college in Africa she smiled all of the time. She talked to them on the phone. She has been working hard to make a better life. She continued to talk to me more and more eventually telling me she had lived on the street for awhile and still smiling. She visited each day for a while showing happiness which helped me through the many days there."
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From Richard Ratzan: alan was a gentle and caring soul but not wishy washy. he was a good friend over the years and we enjoyed talking. he embodied living the spiritually brave life. i liked cecily too
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From Sandra Bertman: Oh my--a dear voice from the long ago past. Thank you David. His gentleness, egoless presence was so obvious --always. I recall meeting Cicely. Wish I could find some of that old correspondence and/or somehow stayed in touch. After Florence Wald died and Morris Wessel (?) I lost touch with that wonderful group. Just read Alan's obit. I'll forward it to Sally Bailey who has moved South.
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from Samuel Abady, Esq: "Such experiments mirrored Nazi medical experimentation on helpless test subjects at Buchenwald, Dachau, Natzweiler, and Ravensbrück; the less well known but equally horrid Japanese Unit 731 medical experiments during World War II; and the Tuskegee syphilis study conducted between 1932 and 1972. These are discussed in Jonathan D. Moreno, Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans (2000). The government’s report on the infamous Tuskegee study is here: http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/history/reports/tuskegee/tuskegee.htm [Pub. Health Serv., U.S. Dep't of Health, Educ. & Welfare, Final Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel (1973)]. In 1966, Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stated, “no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” [G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966)]. But is mere “free consent” sufficient? Prof. Jay Katz at Yale Law School thinks not. I bet you’ll appreciate his discussion of the subject in the attached law review article.
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A physician reader wrote: "powerful post, one person who trained around my time and did a laser fellowship recently told me, forget lasers, im starting to speak for psoriasis companies, they pay the big bucks. go figure!"
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This, the last collection of poems by George Bascom, was published in 1993, the year of his death. We have selected those poems of interest to those readers interested in health care and the human condition. Title Page Gloria 3 Operation 6 I With My Death 9 Notice 13 Post... Continue reading
Posted May 22, 2014 at George Bascom - Surgeon/Poet
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I think it was Richard Caplan, an Iowa dermatologist, who introduced me to the writings of George Bascom in 1992 or 1993. I wrote to Dr. Bascom, and received a nice card in reply. He was in the last stages of his struggle with metastatic prostate disease. In the photos,... Continue reading
Posted May 21, 2014 at George Bascom - Surgeon/Poet
The great auditorium was cool and quiet. The speaker, a silver haired surgeon in his sixties, professor and chairman of his department, leaned with one elbow on the podium and with a pointer indicated on the huge projection of his slide the point at which the pancreatic duct entered the... Continue reading
Posted May 20, 2014 at George Bascom - Surgeon/Poet
George S. Bascom, M.D. (1927 – 1993) Dr. Bascom wrote, “I first heard the music in Shakespeare in a dark auditorium in Topeka (Kansas) as a high school student, first wrote a little poem as a grade schooler, but began to work at it more or less seriously as a... Continue reading
Posted May 20, 2014 at George Bascom - Surgeon/Poet
by Dylan Thomas Never until the mankind making Bird beast and flower Fathering and all humbling darkness Tells with silence the last light breaking And the still hour Is come of the sea tumbling in harness And I must enter again the round Zion of the water bead And the... Continue reading
Posted Mar 10, 2014 at Heaven's Door
I just came across this quote: "Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, but appropriate actions in an imperfect one. R.H. Blyth. Dilatation and Evacuation can be a necessary and appropriate action for a tragic situation.
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The idea is to get a few cognoscenti together to read important (usually new) books about medicine and life. Hopefully, we'll be able to attract a minyan to share insights and points of view from diverse backgrounds - sharing a common interest in what lies between the Cell and the... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2013 at Oslerian Online Book Club