Healing and Medicine

March 2019 Being a Hero Discovery of Penicillin appears to be that milestone in Medicine which marked a shift in the psyche of doctors. The feeling of being able to avert death, which had always loomed so close, had been empowering. Doctors since have felt and even been treated like "heroes". Armed with antibiotics, so many advanced surgeries were being successfully completed. And we were able to "fix" the human body in increasingly sophisticated ways.  Pharmaceuticals have become our super-weapons and medical training is not much different than training for the armed forces. There is pride associated with being a warrior, a hero. Sacrifice and martyrdom is endorsed and even memorialized.  What is the down side then? Medicine has always been a "noble" profession. And while helping the sick feel better was the ultimate goal, somehow "curing the disease" has become the new goal. And again why is that bad?! some may ask

                                      Feb 2019 Talking about death and dying is like a taboo in medicine, so I do feel apprehensive when I take this on. However, I am more and more compelled to speak up as time goes on. As a physician I have come to embrace my role in taking care of the living and dying. While we spend so much time talking about living, not many if any talk about the process of dying. Yes, I am not joking here. This is serious and I do this with the most compassion in my heart. I want us all to take a moment today and think about how would we want to be treated when we are in the process of dying or transitioning or however you would want to think of this phase of our lives. I realize everyday that our mind is a powerful God given super power, so I humbling request to not take my words as a narrow-minded and cold perception of life. Perhaps think of this as an exercise where while you could think of your obituary (which is a commonly used motivational techniq

Jan 2019 The buck stops here! No matter how much knowledge and expertise we acquire with more advanced degrees, courses and training, application is limited by human behavior. How can one inspire another human to modify their behavior? How can we persuade others to follow our advice? How can we make it seem like the best idea etc. etc. ? After being through years of meeting so many humans and discussing their health and suffering, I thought I had a good skill in this area. I was following all the general known methods to enhance compliance: - have empathy - explain the condition and treatment plans in plain English and being less technical. - assessing understanding of the plan - write the plan down to help remember. - ask family members to accompany the patient to enhance understanding and support for the patient. and so on. I was in my bliss zone of "doing-my-best" indeed. All this changed, one fine day! Of course, this didn't take one moment or day f