A Roshi (i.e., master) apparently said that in Zen, “there is nothing to believe and everything to discover.” Interestingly enough, I have never been able to confirm who actually said that, which makes this saying about belief and discovery particularly apt. Regardless, I think about those words at least twice a day when I am…
Modern healthcare is, for better or for worse, the hybrid of many different fields—some that are expected, such as biomedical science, and others that are less well appreciated, such as astrology and palmistry. One modern contributor to healthcare is management. Nowadays, we’re inundated with all sorts of jargon from the business and policy worlds: turnover,…
There was a time when medical textbooks were the ultimate resource for information in the field. The modern age of the U.S. medical textbook began in the 1920s and was fully established by the 1960s. Internal medicine saw the appearance of textbooks by Russell Cecil (1927) and Tinsley Harrison (1950), with specialty textbooks by Goodman…
Resilience. That word has been living rent free in my head for the past three weeks. And rent free is a bit of understatement. It all began at the end of a very productive clinic, when the trainee and I sat down to discuss our reflections on the interactions with patients that we’d had in…
Roughly six years ago, Nigil Haroon, MD, PhD, MBA, division head of rheumatology at the University Health Network, Toronto, traveled almost 9,000 miles from his home to Papua, New Guinea. His plan was to photograph the Raggiana bird-of-paradise, which can only be found in the tropical forests of eastern New Guinea. He spent about two…
My patients ask me almost daily what kind of diet they should be on, or if there are certain supplements they should try. And a growing amount of evidence shows lifestyle and dietary factors may contribute to disease risk and outcomes in rheumatic disease. Thus, rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals are being called upon by patients…
“When you get a good mentor, don’t let ’em be the one that got away.” Richard Brasington Jr., MD, FACP, MACR, told me this about a decade ago when I was a rheumatology fellowship applicant and first met him. It was clear the statement was influenced by his love of fishing. Dr. Brasington’s office was…
When she was 2 years old, Brittany A. Bettendorf, MD, MFA, a rheumatologist at the University of Iowa (UI) Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, was introduced to figure skating by her mother, a national roller-skating champion and amateur figure skater. “The first time I stepped on the ice, I loved it,” she says. Dr. Bettendorf…
I am often asked by medical students, resident physicians and—especially—patients, what is rheumatology? When students ask me why I chose to be a rheumatologist, I answer that I have never been in love with pathologies, such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, gout, osteoporosis, systemic lupus erythematosus or vasculitis. In fact, I chose rheumatology because I love…
The issue of the rheumatology workforce shortage is certainly vexing. Not only does it leave large segments of the population without adequate care for patients with serious rheumatic diseases, but it also increases the burden on the few rheumatologists who serve populous, underserved regions of the country. Solutions suggested in The Rheumatologist (“ACR Workforce Solutions…