When I was in training as a Resident and a Fellow, I remember taking only a couple of sick days over the entire 6-year period. And I had to...

Stephen J. Gould is known to most of us as the evolutionary biologist who brought much scientific thought on evolutionary science to the pub...

My father passed away about two weeks ago after battling a brain tumor for some time. Initially diagnosed with an extensive inoperable mass ...

Remember how you learned in BIO 101 that many fluids in the human body are normally sterile? And you know how you laugh with condescension w...

It is not a secret that large sums of money have passed from the pharmaceutical and device manufacturers into physicians' hands. This mo...

Dear Dr. Val, I enjoy reading your blog and the contributions from many of the leading medical bloggers that appear on it. Occasionally, t...

This is a question well worth asking, particularly as we argue about the merits of mammography screening. The USPSTF has really stirred up t...

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? TED talk from 2004 I am preparing a talk on REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) that I wi...

Our grandparents used to tell us, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Management gurus, in their race to the Finish line (a...

This post is a continuation of the series looking at the cross-roads of peak oil and healthcare. Happy anniversary of Lenin's birth, ...

This post is the first in a series that will examine some ideas on the potential impact of peak oil on healthcare, as well as some solutions...

Much like many other news items, I came upon the one about the proposed name change for Physician Assistants quite by accident: it came to m...

So I know that my blogging has fallen off a bit, and I am sure you are all sorely disappointed (or not). Let me try to explain why. There ...

Did Stupak finally shtup himself instead of millions of poor Americans, as he had intended to? I think so, and with the Catholic nuns, no le...

Now, as you know, I am a big fan of epidemiology. I do not believe that a randomized controlled trial is the be-all-and-end-all in evidence ...

Reading the transcript in the WSJ of the remarks at the President's Healthcare Summit by Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House...

It is an absurd question, right? Well, not really. Bear with me for a bit. As I half-listened to the White House healthcare summit yesterd...

I will go out on a limb: I think that lactose intolerance should not be medicalized. I stumbled upon this story on WebMD discussing the NI...

There is a concept called "samatha" in Buddhist meditation. It has to do with sitting quietly, doing nothing. The opposite of mind...

Remember the trial a couple of years ago that showed that group support participation was associated with prolonged survival among women wit...