MD Whistleblower

Free speech is one of our bedrock constitutional rights.  The debate and battle of what constitutes lawful free speech is ongoing.  The issue is more complex than I can grasp with legal distinctions separating political speech, commercial speech and non-commercial speech.  And, of course the right of speech does not permit the free expression of obscenity or ‘fighting words’, along with some other exclusions.  And, there is no right to free speech in a private work place, where an employee can be fired for speaking his or her mind.  While worker in a private shop may claim that he had a right to call his boss a flippin’ jerk, he would likely find that he suddenly has an abundance of free time to contemplate his prior utterance. Leaving aside the First Amendment, physicians have always enjoyed free speech in our offices.  We ask our patients questions of the most private and intimate nature.  And, they answer us.  We ask such questions because...

Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court of the United States, will face a contentious vetting process in the U.S. Senate.  I expect the sausage-making process to be an opportunity for political grandstanding where bombastic bloviators will spew forth partisan pabulum.  Look for a senator, for example, to point out that the judge did not clean up after his dog when he was in the 7 th grade.  “If we can’t trust you to clean up after Sparky, then how can we trust you to mind the Constitution?” We read and hear about the scourge of judicial activism (JA), where judges invent laws rather than interpret existing law, as they are charged to do.  The antidote to judicial activism is judicial restraint (JR), when judges exercise modesty and base their rulings on the intent of the framers or on the words in the statute.  If, for example, the statute does not specify that “the puppies shall be saved”, then it is not fo...

Here’s a quote that readers will not readily recognize. It is a pity that a doctor is precluded by his profession from being able sometimes to say what he really thinks. I’ll share the origin of the quote at the post’s conclusion.  How’s that for a teaser?  I'll give you a hint below. Author of the Quote as a Young Child Physicians by training and experience are guarded with our words.  To begin, we are never entirely sure of anything, and we should make sure that we do not convey certainty when none exists.  This is why physicians rarely use phrases such as, I’m positive that..., I’m 100% sure…, there are no side-effects… Because of the uncertainties of the medical universe, sometimes we sanitize our own concerns when we are advising patients and their families.  We may see an individual in the office with unexplained weight loss and a change in her bowel pattern.  While we may fear that a malignancy is lurking, we would be wise to ...

Knowledge is power.  Increasingly, patients are demanding and receiving access to levers in the medical machine that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.  I have already opined on this blog whether the informed consent process, which I support, can overwhelm ordinary patients and families with conflicting and bewildering options.  Television and the airwaves routinely advertise prescription drugs directly to the public.  Consider the strategy of direct-to-consumer drug marketing when millions of dollars are spent advertising a drug that viewers are not permitted to purchase themselves.  The public can now with a few clicks on a laptop, research individual physicians and hospitals to compare them to competitors.  The ‘Sunshine Act’, an Obamacare feature, publicizes payments to physicians and hospitals by pharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers. "Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant" Every physician today has the experien...

Several times each week, I am asked about the value of probiotics.  Many of my patients are already on them, based on a personal recommendation or an advertisement.  As a gastroenterologist, I routinely treat patients with all varieties of diarrhea conditions, such as irritable bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, lactose intolerance, celiac disease and the highly feared gluten sensitivity.  Many of them arrive in the office with a probiotic in hand waiting for me to pass judgment.  These patients look to me as a Digestive Supreme Court Justice as they sit on the edge of their chairs waiting for my ruling in the case of Probiotics vs Disease.   First, let’s all be clear on what a probiotic is.  Probiotics are bacteria that provide health benefits when consumed.   Stop a moment and consider how bizarre this concept is.  Physicians have been fighting germs since the days of Louis Pasteur.  We have taught the public for ...

Am I referring to Obamacare here or Obama himself? I am glad that we have a new president.  Like most of the country, I was ripe for a change of direction and a new approach to foreign and domestic affairs – and we are certainly getting that.  New readers here might erroneously suspect that I voted for Trump.  I didn’t.  For the first time in my presidential voting history, I wrote in my choice for our top two office holders. I have written multiple posts on my unfavorable views of Obamacare since it was jammed through congress without a single Republican vote.  (Do I sound slightly partisan here?)  Interested readers are invited to peruse posts on this blog within the Health Care Reform Quality category, if you dare. There are two kinds of people who oppose Obamacare Folks who believe it is wrong on policy grounds Folks who wield it as a political cudgel to bash Obama. Some opponents are a hybrid of both of the above. I was also...

When I was a kid, it was fun to get mail.  Now, not so much.  My mailbox at home is a receptacle for junk mail, various solicitations for services I will never need, and bills.  Office mail is not much more fun.  Each day I look through the stack and separate them into 3 categories. Important stuff Garbagio Not sure The latter category is the most vexing.  Some stuff is cleverly designed to appear important when, in reality it is drivel and nonsense.  We’ve all seen this stuff.  Sometimes, the envelope will include a teaser label, such as ‘Time Sensitive Material’, or ‘Signature Required’.   Once I have been duped to open up the envelope, I’ve lost the game.  Then, I am forced to scan the printed page as fast as my retinas can process the image with the hope that in a few nanoseconds I can send the page sailing into the waste bin.  Sometimes, however, even after reading the entire page, I simply can’t determine if the d...