MD Whistleblower

How do you know if a lawyer is any good?  Of course, they've all passed the bar, but now their profession is lowering it.  While most of us strive for excellence, and raise our children to value this virtue, prominent legal educators are establishing a new quality intitiative for their profession.  Who says that lawyers can't reform themselves?  Perhaps, we physicians can follow their bold example and raise the credentials of our pre-medical students.  I’ll present the facts. You be the judge. I have written a dozen posts on tort reform on this blog, which always generate spirited and adversarial retorts from attorneys and their supporters. They accuse me and other tort reform advocates of carrying water for insurance companies. They repeatedly point out that I know nothing about the legal system and are unqualified to opine on its flaws. They deride me when I argue that effective tort reform would reduce the practice of defensive medicine, despite the re...

Should the public be shielded from medical information that can mislead it? Many argue against direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, which is omnipresent in print and on the airwaves. Opponents of this practice argue that it promotes the use of expensive medications when patients ask their doctors if the ‘drug is right for them’, the tag line that appears at the end of every ad. This phrase is the drug company’s limp disclaimer that it is really the physician who will make the prescribing recommendation. Yeah, right. Of course, DTC ads promote drug sales. Isn’t that the purpose of advertising? Antagonists of this drug pushing state that resources spent on advertising should be used instead to lower drug prices for consumers. Couldn’t the same argument be made about any product being advertised? Should General Motors cease and desist from spending marketing money and divert these funds instead for consumer rebates? Legal products have the right to advertise and market their wares. Per...

Photo Credit One of the advantages of marrying an immigrant is having intense exposure to another culture. My wife’s Russian heritage, and her family, have enriched my own life immeasurably. The trip that I took with her and my brother to Russia in 1990, where she served as our personal translator, was unforgettable. During the early years of our relationship, I heard stories about her family that seemed incredible to an American like myself who was raised in ordinary cirumstances in suburbia. In Russia, her father, uncle and close relatives were arrested and imprisoned on absurd charges. Her family, like so many others, was subjected to persecution and anti-Semitism. One would imagine that her family would celebrate when Stalin died in 1953. Instead, I am told that my mother-in-law, whose family had suffered under his brutal fist, was in tears, demonsrating the deep reach that this tyrannical leader had on the populace. He had a cult of personality, an intoxicant that numbed the...

Gastroenterologist's view of the stomach Recently, while covering for one of my partners on a weekend, I was consulted by a physician to do a procedure. The doctor wanted his patient to undergo an EGD, which is a scope test that examines the esophagus, stomach and first portion of the small intestine called the duodenum. We gastroenterologists do this test routinely to search for an explanation for a patient’s symptoms, or to determine if these organs might be harboring a lesion that is silently bleeding. Gastroenterologists are obligated to perform procedures for sound medical reasons. I have already confessed publicly on this blog why physicians like me have performed medical tests for the wrong reasons. The medical universe is not ideal, and neither are its players. Nevertheless, we want our care to make sense and not to waste dollars. For example, if a patient is suffering an acute headache, it would be hard to justify ordering a CAT scan of the abdomen, which would be unl...

Remember the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test)?  This is the examination that determines if pre-med students will become actual physicians. This is an extensive examination covering an expansive amount of information that is not clearly related to the practice of medicine.   It reminds me of the government and insurance industry’s emerging quality initiatives.   Like the MCATs, these programs measure what is easy to count; but what really counts, can’t be easily measured.  If I were asked to submit MCAT questions, as a practicing physician, I would bring a real world flavor to the examination.  Whistleblower MCAT 2.0 Sample Questions! Test Your Knowledge! Amaze Your Friends! Let the Games Begin! Medical Knowledge Section You are in the hospital recovering from ankle surgery after a fracture. After pain medication is prescribed, you develop some constipation and abdominal discomfort. The orthopedist’s physician assistant orders a CAT ...

Several months ago on this blog, I informed readers that I was a defendant in a medical malpractice case. I offered no specifics, as I didn’t want my attorney to fire me as a client, in case he discovered the post. Although the plaintiff was granted two 45 day extensions to troll for an Ohio physician to sign an affidavit of merit against my care, none could be found. My lawyer had reviewed every syllable of the medical record, and couldn’t divine an allegation against me. My lawyer and I were groping guests in a Chamber of the Absurd - trying to figure out what allegations the other side might concoct. After a few months, I was dropped from this case that should have never been filed in the first place. Years ago, as a younger and more idealistic gastroenterologist, I was kept dangling on a lawsuit for a few years. I endured the light hearted amusement of the discovery process, including expert witnesses outside of my specialty who claimed in their written reports that my ...

Because they can. Why am I dissing my dental colleagues? Because I can. Perhaps, this is a simple case of Dental Envy, since their profession remains within secure borders far beyond the health care reform line of fire. Consider these dental incidentals: • Not a syllable in the ~2000 page health care reform law that affects dentists. Every filling is still worth its weight in gold. • Dentists recover every dime they bill. If their fee is a gazillion dollars, and your generous dental insurance, covers fifty bucks, guess what? There will be a very large cavity in your bank account. • No middle of the night runs to the emergency room, a drill that we physicians endure • No hospital work, which for many physicians has become an inefficient hassle which became the root of a new medical specialty • Dentists don’t need an attorney on retainer , or caps on non-economic damages, as their malpractice situation is calm. • We still call them, ‘doctor’. Dentists prescribe...