One step closer to history
Monday, November 9 2009
I have been getting a ton of spam comments lately, almost all of which have been caught by my spam filter (Akismet). The only problem is I am not able to check whether the spam filter is also catching legit comments. If you think I missed a comment, drop me an email.
A few things I want to share:
If you want a knowing chuckle, you’ll find it either in Dr. Rob’s list of 10 Ways to Annoy Your Doctor, or the complement post: 10 Ways Doctors Can Annoy Patients. I wonder if there aren’t a few dozen tactics missing from the latter, but I don’t fault Dr. Rob for respecting the conventions of the genre.
Leslie at Getting Closer to Myself writes a moving (and long) post about a failed relationship and how it intersects and reflects her experience with illness. I think I have more to say on this, but I want to read it again before I try.
Via The Treatment, I clicked my way to this Slate “Book Club” from 2007 about How Doctors Think, which I found interesting. It explores the differences between doctor-as-lone-hero and doctor-as-team-member ways of viewing medical systems, and how that affects the training and assessment of physicians. I tend to lean towards the latter perspective. I know there are a lot of good physicians out there who can pick out the elusive diagnosis, but they aren’t anywhere near the majority of physicians, and I think Dr. Groopman is way too optimistic that we can teach these skills to all of them.
The big news from this weekend is, of course, that the House passed its version of health care reform. This is a huge step – itself a historic moment. You can read more on Change.org or The Treatment.
The next step is for the Senate to pass a bill. Then the two bills will be combined in a conference committee, after which they will go back to the House and Senate for a final vote. Now would be an excellent time to let your Senators know how you feel about the House bill, and what you want them to do about it.
Yes, there are a ton others I thought of as well – on both posts.