Denialism

Author: MarkH

  • Can’t get into med school? Legislate your own doctorate!

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    MarkH
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    I guess it’s not just doctors watching this one—an alert reader and a fellow SciBling both picked up on this one. Apparently, in my neighboring state of Minnesota (really, check the map), home to Greg Laden, PZ Myers, and lutefisk, doctor wannabes have legislated themselves into “doctorhood”. You see, there is this entity called a…

  • On being a doctor—humility and confidence

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    MarkH
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    The practice of medicine requires a careful mix of humility and confidence. Finding this balance is very tricky, as humility can become halting indecision and confidence can become reckless arrogance. Teaching these traits is a combination of drawing out a young doctor’s natural strengths, tamping down their weaknesses, and tossing in some didactic knowledge. I…

  • I’m Late! Skeptics’ Circle #88

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    MarkH
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    It’s up at Jyunri Kankei. Go and visit!

  • Adventures in staffing—a new physician

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    MarkH
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    When a resident of student presents a patient with me and I help them formulate a plan, we call it “staffing” the case. Recently while I was staffing, I was presented with a patient who speaks little English, but speaks another language fluently. Unfortunately for us, this language wasn’t Urdu, Spanish, French, Romanian, or Hindi…

  • Food dye—a new bugaboo

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    MarkH
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    If you’re around my age, you remember the disappearance of the red M&M. One day, they were just…gone. Apparently, folks worried that a red food dye not even used in M&M’s caused cancer. Well, the red ones came back, but food dyes are back in the news. The Center for Science in the Public Interest…

  • Diarrhea!

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    MarkH
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    This topic has been running through my mind quite a bit lately. Infectious diarrhea is one of the world’s most vicious killers, but is susceptible to basic public health measures such as clean water and good sanitation, which is why cholera-ridden Americans aren’t dropping dead in pools of their own feces. (Citizens of other countries…

  • How do you say it?

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    MarkH
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    I am often the bearer of bad news. I don’t think I’ve ever been formally taught how to deliver bad news, but I’ve developed a style over the years, and I’m pretty good at it. I work with medical residents every day in their outpatient clinics. Most of them have never had to deliver bad…

  • Open letter to Jenny McCarthy

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    MarkH
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    Dear Jenny, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. Oh, Jenny. Look, I realize I might have been somewhat less than kind in the past, but I’m hoping you haven’t written me off. I’ve been told you catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar, so please take this letter in the spirit it was intended—corrective, constructive,…

  • I hate being sick

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    MarkH
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    In the interest of blog synergy, I’m reposting this from my old blog. I’m actually quite lucky. Despite being surrounded by infectious diseases for sixty hours a week, I don’t get sick all that much (OK, maybe more than most, but I don’t have data). I actually called in sick for part of the day,…

  • West Nile season begins

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    MarkH
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    West Nile season is starting up, with the first few case reports trickling in. Back in the summer of 2002, I was introduced to West Nile fever. This mosquito-borne viral illness had a minimal presence in North America in the preceding three years, but made its real American debut that summer. It may have hitchhiked…