Status Iatrogenicus

This is a blog about how lack of common sense leads to common nonsense in medical practice. The result is often Status Iatrogenicus, or a vicious cycle of complications, burdensome care, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. This blog aims a critical eye at various aspects of medical practice that just plain don't make sense - because the cure for common nonsense is uncommon sense.

A Poor Predictor is Worse than No Predictor: On the Superiority of Empiricism in Some Medical Decisions

Accidental Survival from Beneficent Neglect: When "There's Nothing More We Can Do" Becomes Your Salvation

Technological Crutches and Agenesis and Atrophy of Procedural Skills

Bayes' Theorem Explained, No Math Required

Countless Hours, Part 3: Uncalibrated Interns and Immediate and Accurate Feedback

Countless Hours: How to Become a Stellar Student and an Incredible Intern, Part 2: Iterative Practice

Countless Hours: How to Become a Stellar Student and an Incredible Intern, Part 1: Domain Specific Knowledge

The Medical History as an Exposure Narrative: A Didactic for Medical Students and Young Physicians

Running AMOC: How the ABIM Sowed the Seeds of Its Own Destruction

Specious Ideas: Trending Troponins and Chasing Lactates

Plethora And Other Reasons Not to Donate Blood (Even if You Are a Gay Male)

Saith the A-line of the Swan: "There but for the grace of God go I"

The Slave, the Master, Captain Obvious, and Insatiable Searching

Utter Rubbish: A Call for a Moratorium on the 4 AM Blood Draw

Helping Those Who Won't Help Themselves: The Role of Personal Responsibility in Medicine

Mindless Medicine: The Importance of Minding Your P's and C's

We Must Suffer: Moral Hazard in Modern Medicine

Should DNR be the Default Resuscitation Order After a Certain Age? The Case of Arnold Relman

No Code, Slow Code, 45 Minute (Purgatory) Code: Responsibility and Accountability in Attempted Resuscitation from Death

Underperforming the Market: Why Researchers are Worse than Professional Stock Pickers and A Way Out

Dated but Not Outdated: Why the Pager Endures as a Means of Physician Communication

Antifragile but Exposed: A Framework for Understanding Disease that Can Improve Diagnostic Decision Making

The Hits are Recorded, the Misses are Not: How the Culture of Medicine and the Third Party Payer System Foment Waste and Inefficiency

No MOC for Me: Why I'm Not Signing Up For Maintenance of Certification

Jahi McMath: Poster Child for Medical Futility, or Scapegoat?

"No! Not NARCAN!" Exclaimed the Woman Not Breathing and Being Bagged

You Are the Hunted: Eat What You Kill Versus the Salary Model (Let Others Do the Killing, My Eats Are Free)

Behind Closed Doors Lurk Proxy Wars: Is Visitation Really About Visitation?

Doctorin' with Double Effect: The Ethics of Withdrawal of Life Support and Oxygen in Dying Patients

The Girl is Brain Dead but the Emperor Has No Clothes

Real (Cardiac) Death and Invented (Brain) Death: The Oakland Case

In Praise of Lasix: A Utility Approach to Pharmacotherapeutics

Your Last Words for a Few More Breaths: Unspoken Trade-offs in End-of-Life Care