I was an art history major in college. The challenge of sorting out ancient Greek sculptures and Renaissance paintings suited my observational skills and avoided my difficulties with numbers. When it came time to practice medicine, it was clear that I would behave more like an artist than a scientist. I have stubbornly resisted requests to attach numbers to... »

On my first pass through the February 2012 issue of Pediatrics, one title caught my eye. Societal Values and Policies May Curtail Preschool Children’s Physical Activity in Child Care Centers (Pediatrics 2012;129:265-74) screams out the obvious, but its message is one that this country needs to hear and take to heart. One could shorten the title to Societal... »

I am a malpractice suit survivor. About 15 years ago, along with two other physicians, I emerged from a challenging 7-year journey that ended with a weeklong jury trial and a unanimous verdict in our favor.

One might assume that as a result of this painful chapter in my life, I am very careful to request lab work and consultations that might have even a... »

Many years ago I was shocked when some friends told me that when they lived in South America antibiotics could be purchased without a prescription. This seemed dangerous, and at some level, it left me feeling vulnerable. I worried that if this practice ever crept into North America, my status as a professional would be seriously devalued. The mere fact that... »

We now have at our disposal a large arsenal of effective and safe vaccines. Unfortunately, getting families who could benefit from these immunizations to accept them continues to be a challenge. I recently read a short news story that got me thinking about where the stumbling blocks to vaccine acceptance lie ("Move to Get Bin Laden Hurt Polio... »

Like most of you, my wife and I have come to rely on the Internet as our primary link to the outside world. One evening, my wife complained that she couldn’t download one of the few television shows she watches on her laptop. I tried a few of the tricks I know, but failed and told her that it was probably Hulu’s problem and not ours. However, over the next... »

Every parent and every patient mature enough to verbalize issues of cause and effect harbors an explanation for his or her symptoms. This may be one of the traits that defines us as humans and probably was a necessary ingredient for the birth of religion. Often, the patient’s explanation is naïve and unsophisticated. One might call it a... »