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You may not have heard the story of Steward Health Care, but it epitomizes the growing trend of how healthcare is being treated as a commodity to invest in – to the detriment of we healthcare consumers.  I should be writing about gall bladders or thyroid problems you might think.…

The recent Fredericksburg Planning commission hearing about Mary Washington Healthcare’s application for approval of a $10 million building project got me thinking about the expenditures of nonprofit hospitals, and do they give a fair shake in fulfilling their charitable obligation? The medical literature is suggesting that tax exemption for non-profit…

Talking to good friend and colleague, gastroenterologist Farrukh Jafri the other day, I got excited. We were talking about a dear friend of mine, and patient of his, who just had a liver cyst drained. My excitement was because he added to my lexicon of the vile pathological food analogies. …

You may be aware of the challenges taking place over the funding of the Moss Free Clinic. The clinic is running out of the money collected by a capital campaign managed by Mary Washington Hospital Foundation in 2004. It is also being hit with extra charges that formerly Mary Washington…

The early afternoon sun was blinding as we stepped out from the Medical, Dental and Allied Professions Council office in Zimbabwe’s capitol, Harare. My wife Robin and I were elated.  I was brandishing an elegantly calligraphed, temporary medical license. The last hurdle between me and my fantasies of being another…

If you go to Eileen’s Bakery and Café at 10 am on a Friday morning, you will see a bunch of old farts, myself included, sitting around the table, shooting the breeze.  And helping to make us “Super-agers.”  A disparate group that includes retired college professors, civil servants, an ex-coastguard,…

I am prompted to weigh in in on the reaction of the residents to the idea of Concerted Care Group wanting to repurpose a Dollar General store in the Woodlawn Shopping Center in Stafford and make it a methadone clinic.  We have read, here in the Free Lance-Star, of fraught…

I was talking to my sister on the phone the other day. I told her, “You know, even though I’ve been at it all these years, I still get a little spazzed out about going to see patients” – which I now do at the Moss Clinic. Then I thought…

If you don’t have rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease or some other nasty autoimmune or inflammatory illness, probably the fact that Humira is losing its patent won’t excite you very much – but if you’ve ever complained about how much your medicines cost, it should. What is exciting is that,…

I’m worried that my curmudgeon is showing. That I’m being bad tempered and old fashioned because I’m having a bit of challenging being expected to tell people what pronouns I use. Declaring your pronouns seems to be the new expectation – or it is being encouraged at the Unitarian Universalist…

Two recent conversations with friends and a meeting of the End of Life Conversations (EOLC) group that I co-host, has got me thinking about end-of-life issues, and preparations. And when to call hospice in particular. One conversation was with a friend whose 93 year old husband was in hospital with…

Good friends Steve and Janet Watkins started 'Pi and Chi' - an on line publication. I was honored to be asked to write something for it https://pieandchaimagazine.com. I wrote about one of those patients with somatoform problems that can drive you crazy.

Traditions are a big part of many people’s lives. But during Christmas and the holidays this particular quirk of human nature is especially important. Growing up back in England a particular Christmas day tradition was for my sister Angie, and I, was to go with our psychiatrist father to do…

A new year prompts me to look at new medical technologies – high tech gizmos to keep us healthy. There are many innovations in many different fields but those likely to impact the most of us are:  AI and ML Artificial intelligence and machine learning - in many ways mimicking…

A visit to the Prime Meridian in London, and the consequent jet lag, has got me thinking about time zones and circadian cycles - and how when they’re out of sync it screws you up.  A Mean Time Wife Paula and I are just back from a long-postponed visit to…

As a doctor advocating for people to be able to optimize their own healthcare, I find The Care Partner Project really seems to stand out. Founder, Director and Certified Patient Advocate Karen Curtis, like so many other advocates who are prompted by personal experience of how healthcare can go wrong,…

Every 40 seconds someone in the US suffers a stroke. About a fifth of those die. The others suffer what some might be considered a worse fate – like the 45-year-old guy I saw the other day, shepherded in by his brother because he could hardly walk. Unable to speak,…

This is a post from The Care Partner Project - a great organization that looks out for patients:, The World Health Organization is focused on medication safety this year. Why? Common medication mix-ups cause thousands of deaths every year in the US, alone! Let's keep you and your family safe!…

I am part of a group of old farts (the “Coffee Klatch”) who meet once a week to shoot the breeze. But being old, the topic often turns to health and the conversation degenerates into something of an organ recital. Prostate, bowel, joint or kidney problems – almost any organ. …

The trouble with America is the Americans. Maybe that’s not a very gracious way to talk about the citizens of my host nation. But Americans, or their gun culture, is what I see as the gun problem in the US.  It is the culture in the US that seems to tolerate school…