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When Downloads Take a Century

Back in the good old USA and the first thing that smacks me in the face is how bad my Internet service is. In Paris, France I clocked my Internet speed at 66 Mbit/s. Here in Parker, Colorado, just south of Denver, a major center for telecommunication companies, I clocked my speed at 0.93 Mbit/s.… Continue reading When Downloads Take a Century

Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos

There are few jobs more chaotic than that of physician, at least based on my own experience. Yes there is a schedule of sorts: hospital rounds, procedures, office patients. Unfortunately things rarely go as planned. There is a particularly sick patient on rounds who needs a temporary pacing wire placed. There are more consults than expected.… Continue reading Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos

Let the Sunshine In

Yesterday I received an email from Medtronic. It was an early release version of the Sunshine Act data that they had sent to the government. The Sunshine Act, passed in 2010 but implemented in 2013, demands the collection and publication of data on payments to physicians in the form of food, travel, or other goods.… Continue reading Let the Sunshine In

A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane

My lifetime has spanned many of the important developments in the Age of Computers. Back in 1969 when I entered college, I was a frequent visitor to the Kiewit Computing Center, the lair of a GE-635 computer that filled several rooms. Students had access to the computer via noisy teletypes and a multiuser operating system known… Continue reading A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane

Futurama Revisited

Fifty years ago my parents took me to the World’s Fair in New York. The year was 1964. I was twelve years old. It was a turbulent time in American history. The prior fall John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, initiating a long period of turmoil for the United States. But it was still the era… Continue reading Futurama Revisited

Doctors On Call

Taking call is the worst thing about being a doctor. There. I said it. But wait! What about medical malpractice lawsuits? What about dealing with patients’ suffering or dying either from their illness, or far worse, relating to decisions you made or procedures your performed? Certainly these are far worse events than being on call? Granted.… Continue reading Doctors On Call

Cloning the Doctor of the Future

There are now so many rules and regulations in medicine that it is difficult for doctors to express any individuality. Like the burgers at McDonalds that are constructed in such a way that they taste the same regardless of your locale, doctors are expected to behave similarly when confronted with similar circumstances. Or at least… Continue reading Cloning the Doctor of the Future

Medical Documentation Should Not be Tied to Billing

The idea of starting over with computerized Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and doing them right as mentioned in my previous post has struck a resonant chord. Unfortunately designing an EHR that works may be a fantasy, due to one huge hurdle that would have to be overcome first. But it is fun to imagine… Continue reading Medical Documentation Should Not be Tied to Billing

How to Build a Better EHR

A lot has been written about how awful Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are. They are overwrought, overengineered, dreadfully dull Baroque systems with awkward user interfaces that look like they were designed in the early 1990s. They make it too easy to cut and paste data to meet billing level requirements, documenting patient care that… Continue reading How to Build a Better EHR

Man of Bronze

Unless you are an initiate, it is difficult to explain the appeal of literature from the era of the pulp magazines. In fact most literary high-brows would insist on putting that word literature into quotes when referring to the pulps. The heyday of the pulps was in the 1930s and 40s. Afterwards they quickly disappeared,… Continue reading Man of Bronze