Commercial Appeal Articles

Even with malpractice insurance, doctors opt for expensive, defensive medicine
Some months ago, the receptionist in my clinic handed me a registered letter. The name of the sender seemed familiar. "Dear Sir," the letter read. "Please be advised that this letter serves as official notice that I am considering a potential claim against you in a medical Malpractice claim in regard to my husband. . . ." I stood, stunned. My white coat, which held the daily tools of my profession -- my list of patients, the Sanford antibiotic manual, a black stethoscope -- felt extraordinarily heavy. Read More

Vacation helps us recharge and refresh
"A vacation is not a luxury but a necessity; it keeps us healthy and living longer." Try that line the next time you are negotiating vacation days with your boss. Then, quote this research to support your point.Read More

Writers, like physicians, hope to stir improvement
A few weeks ago a young woman was admitted to the hospital with a raging fever, excessive urination and back pain. I prescribed an antibiotic for a kidney infection, and over the next several days I watched her improve and go home. As a doctor, I could see the impact that I had made.Read More

New Medicare appointee is no stranger to Memphis
The new director of one of the largest health insurance systems in the world has been hired. He will manage health insurance for 90 million enrollees -- including many Memphians -- and wield funds of more than $800 billion -- about one-third of the national health care expenditure.Read More

Take steps to prevent severe harm from heat
I have fond childhood memories of my summer vacations in India playing soccer (we called it football), cricket and marbles in the relentless 100-degree heat.Often, it was under the setting sun and as kids, we were unaffected by the heat.Read More

How one handles life situations is telling
Last week, my oldest daughter graduated from high school and began her journey as a young adult. As a proud parent and the commencement speaker, I shared some life lessons with the class of 2010. Here is some of what I said: Read More

Big steps help end infant mortality
For every 1,000 babies born in Memphis, 12 die. This is double the national rate and similar to that of some developing countries like Sri Lanka and Jamaica. Read More

Close friend's passing raises questions beyond the scientific
A close friend of mine, Tapan Thakur, died last week. As I tried to go about my routine of seeing patients or having dinner with my kids, no more than five minutes would pass before my thoughts would revert to him. Read More

Health care reform from one doctor's perspective
I don't want to discuss the polarizing politics of the health care reform bill, which is now a law. Rather, I want to answer one fundamental question that my patients and my peers have asked me. "What's in it?" Read More

Pleasant thoughts can help you sleep
At 9 p.m. most nights, I put my reluctant 10-year-old son to bed. He frets and frowns, saying "I can't sleep when I am alone," but readily agrees when I offer to stay. Read More

H1N1 toll is great, and still many don't heed warnings
It was before Thanksgiving when Teresa Heberling of Southaven first went to her doctor with a cough, fever and body aches. Her brother had died of lung cancer a week earlier and hundreds of people had attended the funeral.Read More

Can't fix health care in just few months
William Deere, 98, is a retired farmer and a politics junkie who wouldn't be alive if not for the pacemaker in his chest. His nurse showed me his EKG, taken when his pacemaker was stopped temporarily for testing. His heart rhythm was a flat line. "Scary, heh?" she said.
Read More

Culture, media filter views of flu vaccine
Phyllis Savage, a seasoned ICU nurse at my hospital, wasted no time getting her seasonal flu shot this fall. But when the H1N1 swine flu vaccine first came out, she wondered if she should get it, unsure about its safety.Read More

Mammograms starting at age 40 is personal choice
There are few things my wife recommends I refrain from commenting upon. The first is labor pains (we have three children), and the second is the painful breast-smashing feeling of a mammogram. Weighing the risk-benefits, I will venture to comment on the latter.Read More

Garlic's benefits antioxidant, antisocial
I am not a fan of garlic, except for sprinkling garlic powder on my cheese pizza. However, I may have to change my mind.Read More

Tap talk, programs to cut teen pregnancy
A few months ago, I was asked to see a patient on one of our hospital's labor and delivery wards. As I entered the room I saw a child, the same age as my 13-year-old daughter, sitting on the sofa with a baby in her arms. Read More

Allocating less scary than ugly rationing
A seasoned pulmonologist shakes his head. "Let's face it, we already ration care." And, pausing ever so slightly, he begins his story. "This family of an 80-year-old gentleman came to me a few days after he was admitted into the ICU. Read More

Industrial farms using antibiotics to excess
As an infectious disease doctor, I prescribe antibiotics for a living; sometimes too many. But, I almost never give antibiotics to healthy, non-infected individuals.Read More

Alternative care isn't safe as a substitute
At a conference over lunch, Pat, a middle-aged health care consultant, revealed to me her lifelong battle with Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the bowels that causes diarrhea and abdominal pain.Read More

Emphasis on control of infection pays off
Many people have a fear of hospitals. Not because they don't appreciate the care delivered by the doctors and nurses, but because of the superbugs that lurk there.
My job as an infectious disease doctor is to battle these bugs each day, and sometimes it seems we are losing the battle.Read More

No panic for swine flu; we've been here before
Last week, as I was driving my 9-year-old son to school, I happened to sneeze loudly. "Dad, are you getting the swine flu?" he asked with concern in his voice.
"No, I am just recovering from a cold," I reassured him.Read More

Time for physicians, nurses to come clean
One morning on hospital rounds, I saw a physician colleague enter the intensive care unit where a patient lay intubated and sedated. With his hands unwashed and ungloved, the physician palpated the patient's abdomen, scratched his own head and then placed his stethoscope on the patient's chest to listen to his heart. Then he walked to the nurses' station, rubbed his nose and entered a note in the patient's chartRead More

Stages of grief can help with losses, even when loss is a Tiger's game
Last Monday night my 8-year-old son and I, along with the nation, witnessed one of the greatest heart-breakers in Memphis sports history. The pain was too much to bear for a freshly-bred or a veteran Memphis Tigers fan. Read More

Super Bowl can stress patients and doctors
As it turned out, I was on call during Super Bowl weekend. The schedule was determined before the football season started, and I never imagined that my lifelong favorite team, the New England Patriots (I am a Boston native) would be 18-0 going into the Super Bowl.
Read More

Time for physicians, nurses to come clean
Ten years ago, an intelligent, reserved software engineer -- a woman with the complexion of Halle Berry and the physique of a marathoner -- came to my infectious-disease clinic, accompanied by her fiancé.Read More

Ask health workers: Had your flu shot?
Last month at a luncheon marking International Infection Prevention Week at the National Press Club, some speakers reminded me of a shameful and frightening statistic: Almost 60 percent of American health care workers do not receive the flu vaccineRead More

Ask health workers: Had your flu shot?
A few weeks ago, as I was making rounds, one of my patients asked out of the blue, "Hey, Doc, who you gonna vote for?"
I would have expected this patient to have other questions on his mind. He's a 32-year-old writer whose leukemia had failed to remit after two rounds of chemotherapy. Now a third, more powerful regimen had dropped his white blood cell count to near zero, making him vulnerable to life-threatening infections.Read More

Numbers add up for a longer life if you heed science and medicine
Often at family gatherings or social events the conversation turns to the question: "how do you live longer?"
As a physician, I respond in no uncertain terms: "The elixir of long life is pretty simple stuff. Exercise, eat well, avoid stress, stop smoking and take preventive medications." But how exactly do these and other things affect our body's vital organs? If you are embarking on a health-improvement journey or are already on the road, here are tips and scientific findings to support the modifications in your behavior.Read More

Use time in car to teach teens more than driving
Last summer, my oldest daughter passed a multiple-choice driver's exam, secured a learner's permit and asked to sit in the driver's seat. This was a source of concern for me. I know that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teenage death, accounting for more than a third of the fatalities in this age group.Read More

Studies equivocal on value of prayer
My patient is an elderly man with end-stage congestive heart failure, kidney failure and now an infected dialysis line, and he is unlikely to live more than six months. The Bible lies on his bedside table next to his hospital breakfast tray and the morning newspaper. I wonder if I should pray with him.Read More

Patient's request to be off work tests doctor's ethics
My patient had come for a routine doctor visit. He was a well-built, soft-spoken middle-aged man who was always polite, respectful and adhered meticulously to his HIV medication. He complained only if he was in a great deal of pain or discomfort.Read More

Americans spend $7K per person on health
As 2007 was coming to a close, I was stocking up on several months' supply of my medications. A set of family illnesses had pulled us up above the deductible, so I was using the benefits of the insurance coverage. Read More

In most cases, we get it right in health care
I am often criticized by some of my colleagues for writing only about the potholes and chasms in our health care system. They are right; many of my articles do focus on medical errors, the lack of insurance and disparities in care, and I do not often enough touch upon the successes of everyday medicine -- and there are many. Read More

Honesty about errors is essential to maintain trust
Some years ago, I was awakened by a call from the hospital at 3 a.m., when my patient was writhing in pain with a fever of 103 from a possible urine or central line infection. I ordered some Tylenol along with Levaquin and Vancomycin, antibiotics to treat the offending microorganisms. Read More

Additives contribute to creating hyper kids
Nearly every kid's food is "decorated" -- or "tainted" -- with artificial food color and additives. While they make food look pretty, there may be a downside. Can our children's daily consumption of juices, candy, and soft drinks with these additives be fueling disruptive behavior, restlessness, lack of concentration, fidgeting, and recurrent interrupting? Read More

It takes a team to deliver care of high quality
The hotel ballroom was packed with 400 doctors, 10 at each round table. My wife, also a physician, and I were attending a medical seminar.Our facilitator, a pilot, asked us to write in our workbooks. "List all the members on your healthcare team ... the people who help you deliver the best possible care." We had three minutes to do the exercise. Read More

Sadly getting used to a lack of health insurance
Late on a Saturday afternoon, I met a slightly overweight 19-year-old girl from Mississippi. I was on-call for the weekend, and she was admitted to the hospital.As I entered her hospital room, a dreadfully foul fishy odor overwhelmed me, giving me a nauseated, faint feeling. She lay motionless, quiet, withdrawn as I tried to unearth her illness. Read More

Estimating HIV in India
India has eliminated HIV from 3.2 million of its people in a year! Well... sort of.
Analysis of a recent in-depth survey reveals a lower number -2.5 million people instead of 5.7 million people- living with HIV in India today. The new estimate ratchets India down from being the most populous HIV positive nation in the world to being the third - after South Africa and Nigeria.Read More

You can help your doctor gather facts
Have you ever gone to a job interview and wondered what and how the interviewer was thinking? Is she looking at your tie or blouse, examining your physical mannerisms or analyzing your previous work history and school grades?Read More

Sacred bond of patient and doctor should be inspiration
I carry the card in the glove compartment of my car. It is not a valentine card from my wife, or a graduation card from my mother. It is a simple greeting card, with a cheerful watercolor of wildflowers, sent to me by a patient I cared for after moving to Memphis.

In medical affairs of heart, most disease is preventable
Initially, I thought it was a rather inappropriate and tasteless joke. On Valentine's Day, while the rest of the country was gifting chocolate hearts and roses, PBS aired a documentary titled "A Hidden Epidemic -- Heart Disease in America." Read More

More hospitalized than needed if treated earlier
Tennesseans were more likely than other Americans to be hospitalized for pneumonia, dehydration and 11 other complaints that are often successfully treated on an outpatient basis.
The analysis by two Memphis researchers suggests the network of public and private clinics and health providers that state residents rely on for primary care is inadequate and in urgent need of improvement. Read More

Benefits of chocolate at heart of indulgence
I can't resist biting into a piece of chocolate, especially when Valentine's Day is upon us and the stuff seems to be everywhere. Read More

It's time for ban on indoor smoking
A cloud of smoke hung over the nurses' lounge. It was shift change, and nearly all the nurses had a lit cigarette between their fingers or on an ashtray.
In the lounge across the hall, patients with IV poles leashed to their arms puffed on their cigarettes. Read More

Rats! Wine benefit not fully proven in humans
Eat, drink and be merry.... Really?
I hate to be the one to break some bad news, but red wine and a McDonald's diet is not a path to a long, healthy and happy life. One study; however, would have you believe they are.
Read More

Deserving patients within our borders
During the past several years, I and some other doctors I know have moved our practices away from Downtown Memphis. There are many reasons for this: having a shorter commute, establishing a presence at one hospital and searching for a better payer-mix of insured patients. Read More

Are you drinking enough coffee? Get health up to speed
I am not a drinker. Honest. But now, I may start drinking ... coffee.
Scientific studies have been pouring in, one after another, some 19,000 of them over the past decades, evaluating the health effects of coffee. And, the overwhelming consensus is that coffee is beneficial for health -- specifically for people with diabetes, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and even Parkinson's disease. Read More

Connecting the dots uncovers thyroid problem
It was during Super Bowl XXXVIII that I first noticed my heart racing. Usually it beats in keeping with the second hand on the clock, one beat a second. Now I was almost at 2 beats a second, a heart rate of 120 beats per minute - while at rest. Read More

SARS: An Opportunity Within an Epidemic
On February 19, 2003 when an unsuspecting nephrologist was admitted into a Hong Kong hospital for what seemed to be an innocent respiratory infection or, at worst, a bad pneumonia, the world witnessed the public birthing of a new disease. Read More