Alcoholism Through a Doctor’s Eyes
When I teach medical students about alcoholism, it is never easy. Students arrive with preconceived notions and stereotypes obtained from books, television and films — and their personal upbringings — about the subject. So I am especially glad that medical, nursing and other graduate students from my institution, New York University, have been attending the […]
Searching for Semmelweis
My father’s hero was not a baseball player, movie star, or president. It was Ignaz Semmelweis, a 19th-century Hungarian physician. For my dad, a professor of infectious diseases, choosing Semmelweis made a lot of sense. Not only had Semmelweis discovered the cause of outbreaks of deadly puerperal (childbed) fever among women, but he had railed […]
Treat Reckless Driving Like Drunk Driving
On a rainy, foggy night earlier this month, a New York City taxi driver making a left turn at a light apparently did not see my 9-year-old nephew and his 6-foot-3 father crossing the street at a crosswalk, beckoned by a lighted “walk” sign. Whether because of haste, inattention, cellphone use or perhaps the poor […]
A Nurse Gains Fame in the Days of Polio
In the years after World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt routinely won polls as America’s most admired woman. But in a 1952 Gallup poll, she was beaten by an Australian nurse, Elizabeth Kenny, popularly known as Sister Kenny. Today, Elizabeth Kenny is largely forgotten. But thanks to a new biography by the Yale University historian of […]
The Father Who Fought for Lorenzo’s Oil
Augusto Odone surely was one of the best fathers of all time. Along with his wife, Michaela, Mr. Odone defied and then amazed the medical profession when he devised an apparent treatment for his son Lorenzo’s incurable neurological disease. The treatment was called “Lorenzo’s Oil.” Mr. Odone died last week, but he left an indelible […]
Frank Netter: The Michelangelo of Medicine
A new biography tells the story of one of the most influential doctors of the past century, and his evolution as an artist. To generations of medical students, from mine to the present, the name Frank Netter has a magical connotation. He was the doctor who drew the remarkably lifelike images that we all used to learn anatomy. They were so […]
When Med Students Get Medical Students’ Disease
The New York Times (Well blog), September 5, 2013 Each year hundreds of medical students think they have contracted the exact diseases they are studying. But they haven’t. “Medical students’ disease” refers to the phenomenon in which medical students notice something innocuous about their health and then attach to it exaggerated significance. It often corresponds […]
The First Female Celebrity to Embrace Parkinson’s
The 1950s was not a time for open discussion of serious diseases—whether by celebrities or ordinary citizens. Linda Ronstadt’s recent announcement that she has Parkinson’s disease and has retired from singing caught her fans by surprise. It was even more jarring over 40 years ago when another famous woman went public with similar news. In […]
Bernard Fisher’s Battle Against the Radical Mastectomy
theatlantic.com, August 9, 2013 Before 1971, if you had breast cancer, chances are you’d have to get your breast cut off. Surgeons had been taught one thing: radical surgery saves lives. It was Bernard Fisher who changed their minds, getting reluctant breast surgeons to enter their cancer patients into clinical trials that tested less aggressive […]
Tipsy Driving Is Dangerous, Too
“Room for Debate,” The New York Times, 16 May 2013 “Everyone metabolizes alcohol at different rates.” This is the common rejoinder whenever scientists start debating how much alcohol must be consumed for someone to reach a blood alcohol level that negatively affects a driver’s brain. It is worth revisiting this statement, given the recent call […]