When Data Misinforms
The statistics were grim. World War II Bomber crews faced an average life expectancy of 11 missions. 55,573 crew members were killed out...
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A Friend Like That
My younger sister, Esther, underwent coronary artery bypass surgery this August. It should have been me. Esther weighs about 110 pounds,...
Playing Fair
“There is no such thing as new truth; error might be old or new, but truth is as old as the universe.” Frederick Douglass, 1863 “Popular...
Where You’re Going Matters
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I...
When Everybody Loses
The perfect partnership Craig Underwood (81) is a 4th generation California farmer in Ventura County who was facing headwinds keeping his...
Conflicts, Corruption, Medicine, and Me Part IV
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. Mark Twain It is fitting that my final installment of this...
Conflicts, Corruption, Medicine, and Me Part III
It’s called “the green journal.” When I was in medical school in the 1970’s, it was the source most frequently quoted by faculty at OHSU....
Conflicts, Corruption, Medicine, and Me Part II
Do you think the health care system in the United States is better than it was 40 years ago? A simple way to gauge the health of a...
Conflicts, Corruption, Medicine, and Me Part 1
At my age, it’s humbling to recognize how easily I can be manipulated. It is small comfort to know I am neither the first nor is it rare...
Morning Has Broken
New Year’s Day is the morning of the year. Like mornings of mere days, it inspires fresh hope, but on an immensely grander scale. We wake...
A Risk to Whom?
If you haven’t received the letter yet, it is in the mail. At least it will be if you are serious about providing good patient care. The...
The Main Thing
Over the past months, many new providers have joined Evergreen. I want to welcome each one. Each of you brings something unique,...
What we think we know
It isn’t so much what we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It is the information we are certain is true, which turns out to be wrong,...
The Cost of Courage
It takes courage. Because the injury often comes from colleagues or institutions who should have your back. A betrayal of trust. It...
The Role of the Church in Medicine
In the mid 1990’s, a group of Kaiser physicians who were working with patients with severe chronic diseases, noticed that they all had...
The Danger of Scientific Consensus
Karl Popper, one of the 20th century’s most influential philosophers of science, wrote that “the growth of knowledge depends entirely on...
How Philosophy Drives Medical Ethics Part 3
When the foundations are being destroyed What can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3) It’s called the Wexner Center for the Arts. This...
How Philosophy Drives Medical Ethics Part 2
Dissolution of truth is like the melting of snow on a cold winter day. It evaporates a little at a time, scarcely perceptible and...
How Philosophy Drives Medical Ethics Part 1
Recently, I composed a series of blogs illustrating ethical quandaries in medicine. In those writings, I examined four ethical...
A Season of Change
“The Times They are a-Changing” Bob Dylan 1963 This document is more important to me than it is to you. I get that. I set these goals...
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