MD Whistleblower

 A doctor arrives just a few minutes late to his office and is warned by his staff that the patient slammed the exam room door and starting swearing.   A passenger on an airplane erupts in anger and has to be physically restrained.  Parents at school board meetings are foaming at the mouth objecting to revisions in the curriculum.  An angry mob storms the seat of our democracy attacking law enforcement professionals, an event that is later referred to as ‘legitimate political discourse’. So much anger. Where did all of this rage come from?   Is there a pathway back to civility? Anger today is more prevalent and intense than I have ever seen in my lifetime.   Moreover, it has spread over the landscape like hot flowing lava reaching regions that were heretofore anger-free zones.   Violence on an airplane?   Really?   In years past, there was a time and a place for anger.   Here are a few examples when anger was understandable. ...

I have been much less enthralled this year in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.   And I’m not alone.   There are many reasons for this global Olympic ennui.   International publicity on China’s horrendous human rights record resulted in several nations, including ours, issuing diplomatic boycotts.   The Peng Shuai affair was also a turn off when this Chinese tennis athlete made an accusation of sexual harassment against a Chinese government official.   Then, she disappeared and issued a statement denying her allegation.   Sounds like she was being squeezed in a Chinese Olympic vice.   The shameless spinelessness of the International Olympic Committee is itself a reason to boycott watching the games.   And Americans and folks abroad have been absorbed with the ongoing pandemic and worsening economic realities.   Many are preoccupied with inflation or rising crime or an imminent war in Europe.   For them, watching the Olympics isn’t e...

During the pandemic, which has not yet ended, we’ve all heard lots of chatter about freedom.  Folks are figuratively burning their masks as a statement of their personal freedom.  We have seen patrons packed into bars and other venues, against the advice of medical professionals, claiming they have the freedom to congregate.  Political leaders in some states have banned mask mandates in schools arguing that parents have the freedom to make their own decisions regarding their kids. And the fundamental reason given by so many anti-vaxers and government skeptics is that they have the freedom to accept or reject any medical intervention.  These arguments are framed as pro-freedom positions in an effort to make it difficult for opponents to challenge them.   Who wants to be seen protesting against freedom?   Not surprisingly, and as I have posted previously on this blog, these issues are more complex.   Freedom is not absolute.   That’s why we have...

I’m long on the record that we need to recalibrate the balance between individual freedom and society’s rights.  Personal freedom is often at the direct expense of society’s rights and expectations.   For example, an individual may argue that he has a right to air travel without having to proffer a government authorized ID or to submit to a search of his luggage. On this example, I think most of us would argue that society’s rights would prevail. And there needs to be personal responsibility and accountability when one exercises particular personal freedoms.   If you want to ride a motorcycle, for example, then your insurance risks should be priced accordingly.  And if you don’t want to wear a helmet while riding, then you and other helmetless riders need to share in this risk so the rest of us don’t have to pay when an unwelcome event occurs on your ride.   As in everything else in life, this terrain can become murky.   If a patient declines surge...

I am on the record in opposition of Ohio’s system for authorizing the use of medical marijuana.  While I am not an expert on the issue, my reading over several years has informed me that persuasive medical evidence of safety and efficacy – the legal and regulatory standard used for prescription drug approval -  is lacking for nearly all ‘approved’ uses of this drug.  And while it is true that there is some evidence that marijuana offers benefit in a very narrow range of medical conditions, the broad claim of efficacy for a panoply of illnesses is unfounded scientifically.  Champions of medical marijuana use should want, if not demand, that the drug is vetted and tested under the auspices of the Food and Drug Administration.  Wouldn’t you want to be assured of any drug’s safety and efficacy?  Should anecdotes of benefit or beliefs of benefit be sufficient to release a medication for general use?  Is this the standard that we use to approve drugs used t...

Thus far, to the best of my knowledge, I have dodged infection with the coronavirus.  I am up-to-date on the recommended vaccinations and have comported myself with caution.  However, I am not in a state of personal lockdown and I still enter area retail establishments to make personal purchases, although I am always masked.  Currently, I am sipping a sugar-free peppermint mocha in a very sparsely populated coffee shop.  I accept that public health experts might challenge my definition of cautious.  Indeed, I’m sure many of them wouldn’t step foot, let alone a toe, into a supermarket these days. But the risks of catching the corona on my personal forays in the community pale next to the risks I face each week at work when I am in direct contact with several dozens of patients and staff.   The omicron variant spiked into the stratosphere here in Northeast Ohio, but thankfully it appears to be in a steady descent now. It does not seem that the vaccines and ...

While I may consider myself to be an ethical practitioner, I am in imperfect member of the genus, Homo, practicing medicine in an imperfect world.  I don’t commit Medicare fraud or lie to my patients.  When I commit an error, I admit it.  I often counsel patients against proceeding with endoscopic studies, because I don’t feel they are medically necessary.  I do my best to keep my patients’ interests as my paramount concern. But the world of medicine doesn’t always have bright lines and borders to keep us confined to an ethical zone.  Physicians and ethicists argue over where to draw these boundaries.  What was regarded to be unethical 10 years ago has become standard medical operating procedure in many instances.  Consider how the field of reproductive medicine has evolved.  The definition of death has been relaxed in order to increase the human organ donor pool. We will surely see human cloning in our lifetime.  Medical ethics is not e...