Is the duty of the physician to capture the patient stories, or capture a billing code? In July 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed revamping Medicare payments for office visits. CMS plans to collapse Medicare fees for levels 2 through 5 office visits into a single price beginning in 2019, as…
Comments closedHello Readers. This week I am pleased to share a link to my latest narrative essay that I am privileged to have published in JAMA, in their popular “A Piece of My Mind” series. Entitled Making Room, it is a very personal piece for me, in which I have tried to write about doctor work life balance,…
Comments closedThe Art of Oncology I am pleased to share the link to my newest published narrative essay, entitled The Puzzle Table, published online 10/2/17 in the Art of Oncology section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Update March 2018: Now listen to the podcast on the JCO Art of Oncology Cancer Stories page. find links…
Comments closed(published also online on 4/10/17 in The ASCO Post, under the title The Mystery of Grace. re-published here on my home blog with permission of the editor). The day after I told Nell she had seven metastases to her brain, she sent me flowers. She was my patient; I was her oncologist. I had met her…
3 CommentsMy patient sat in a wheelchair. In his mid-forties, before the cancer, he had held a physically demanding job that he loved. Now, the cancer in his spine had ended not only his ability to work, but any ability to use his legs. His wife was devoted to him in a way that seemed as…
Comments closedHere is an example of “meaningful use” from the clinic, and how meaningless it is for actual practice: Mr. X. is a man in his 80s who was cured of his cancer, but at what cost. The therapies which eradicated the cancer left him with permanent frailties and the loss of his independence. A family…
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