2018 is coming to a close, and somehow, I have managed to make it through a year as the physician editor of The Rheumatologist without being sued or fired, so I thought this would be a good time to pause and reflect on lessons learned—and to give thanks. My first lesson: this is a lot of… [Read More]
Black powder was initially developed in 9th century China, by Taoists searching for the philosopher’s stone, which fans of Harry Potter will remember is the talisman that grants eternal life. The Chinese name for black powder literally translates as fire medicine. The chemical composition of black powder was first recorded in China during the 11th… [Read More]
“Men work harder than women.” My mother is a pediatrician, and I have two sisters—one is a dermatologist, and one is a real estate attorney. Therefore, I think understandably, this message took me by surprise. Of late, I have been particularly awed by my lawyer-sister, with whom I catch up when she is taking the… [Read More]
Honestly, I’m not sure why I bothered to listen. I was in my kitchen, early on a Saturday morning, with the radio keeping me company. It started with the news and the usual litany of tragedies, both major and minor, that comprise such programs. The news gradually faded into other programming, which I can no… [Read More]
You can purchase a dog clicker for about $3 on Amazon. If you don’t own a dog, this is not a useful piece of information. I don’t own a dog, and the first time I heard the phrase dog clicker, I thought—I think understandably—that it was some sort of remote control. If you don’t own… [Read More]
Picture this: It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. You can’t sleep. You settle in front of the television to watch a rerun of Dirty Dancing. And then it hits you: Ask your doctor. Even as your eyelids sag, some part of your primitive forebrain snaps to attention. Medical training has turned us all into multitaskers,… [Read More]
“Wait. I can explain.” One could imagine this phrase coming up under many conditions in daily life. When I first became a physician, however, I would never have expected to use this phrase in my clinic. In medical school, I was taught the importance of dialogue in establishing a relationship with a patient. Statistics indicate… [Read More]
It started with an inhaler. Like many of you, I am a rheumatologist. And like you, I see some patients more often their own primary care provider. This is so often the case that I have gradually devolved into their backup, all-purpose doctor. I am the doc they notify when they get hospitalized for pneumonia… [Read More]
There is an old adage that there are two types of people—lumpers and splitters. For some, people are easily categorized into liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, Donald Trump supporter vs. Hillary Clinton supporter. For others, everyone is a snowflake, and what makes us different is much more important than what makes us the same…. [Read More]
If you are a news junkie, then you know that a tick-tock is a story that relies heavily on chronology, counting down the events of the day, in order, as inexorably as the ticking clock. These types of timeline stories have become very popular in the fast-paced world of modern politics, in which readers eat… [Read More]