MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'abraham verghese'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:26:15 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4399767&cid=t_238866_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FxM4JCGuedSw%2F Image via Wikipedia Because I read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese last summer, and loved it so much that I insist on dragging it across country with me, just to have it close by, it has had at least one unexpected effect on me: namely, my cooking. The book is not about cooking; food is mentioned in the due course of things, but no more than you might expect. One thing mentioned many times: berbere. Berbere is not a spice, but a mix of spices. It is heavily used in Ethiopian cooking, especially in a common chicken stew called doro wat. And so, I wanted some. I looked in the ethnic cooking sections of grocery stores both regular and organic. I looked online and in spice and cookware stores: no berbere. Nobody even to tell me how to pronounce the word, since I know no Amharic. But lo ... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4399767 Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:58:10 +0100 4399767 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4142768&cid=t_238866_99_f&fid=35344&url=http%3A%2F%2Fzackarysholemberger.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpointless-exam-can-be-just-as-bad-as.html Dr. Abraham Verghese, says the Times, is reviving the lost art of the physical exam. He cuts quite a figure on the wards, with his white coat, his stories, and his diagnostic maneuvers, reminding us of "the doctor who missed nothing and could swiftly diagnose a peculiar walk, sluggish thyroid or leaky heart valve using just keen eyes, practiced hands and a stethoscope." Here's where the definitions of art and science matter, though. The margin here is too narrow to contain a detailed discussion of where these two bugbears embrace and where they face off, fangs bared. The applicable stab of a definition in this case, I think, is this: in a science, we try and apply a community's rigorous professional definition to our individual classifications. In art, we try and apply our own individual c... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4142768 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:01:00 +0100 4142768 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4086270&cid=t_238866_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdr-abraham-verghese-the-top-gun-of-american-medicine%2F2010.10.20 The first-year medical students I precept were too young to see Tom Cruise’s alter ego Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell grace the big screen in the 1986 blockbuster film “Top Gun.” Yet, the story has a relevant analogy to medicine.  According to the film, during the Vietnam war American pilots were relying too much on technology to bring enemy fighters down. They weren’t as skilled in taking out the opposition. They fired their technologically advanced missiles to try and get the job done. They didn’t think. It didn’t work. They forgot the art of dogfighting. The military discovered that technology alone wasn’t going to get the job done. The best fighter pilots needed the skills, insight, and wisdom on when to use technology and whe... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4086270 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:00:00 +0100 4086270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3902901&cid=t_238866_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fprimary-care-doctors-rewarded-for-time-with-patients%2F2010.08.25 Abraham Verghese is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and one of the most articulate physician-writers today. He recently wrote an op-ed highlighting primary care’s plight, and focuses on the scarcity of time: The science of medicine has never been more potent – incredible advances and great benefits realized in the treatment of individual diseases – yet the public perception of us physicians is often one of a harried individual more interested in the virtual construct of the patient in the computer than in the living, breathing patient seated on the exam table.Time is the scarcest commodity of all. Patients, particularly when it comes to their routine, day-to-day care, want a physician who has time to understand them as people first, and then as patients. It’s bee... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3902901 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:27 +0100 3902901 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3671699&cid=t_238866_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ftoo-much-testing-and-treatment-try-superb-primary-care%2F2010.06.16 The Associated Press has been running a fantastic series of must reads with the latest article highlighting the consequence of too many imaging studies, like X-rays and CT scans, which are the biggest contributor to an individual’s total radiation exposure in a lifetime. Americans get more imaging radiation exposure and testing than people from other industrialized countries. Reasons for doing too many tests include malpractice fear, patient demands for imaging, the difficulty in obtaining imaging results from other doctors or hospitals, as well as advanced technologies, like coronary angioplasty, which have increased radiation but avoid a far more invasive surgery like heart bypass. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Heal... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3671699 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:00:00 +0100 3671699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570668&cid=t_238866_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fmyth-prevention-and-ehrs I was just referred this article which I found to be thoughtfully crafted. Abraham Verghese is a Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University. I found the article interesting, by somewhat anachronistic in terms of his perception of prevention and electronic medical records. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570668 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:24:53 +0100 2570668 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2477684&cid=t_238866_93_f&fid=35707&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fhemodynamics%2F%7E3%2FKRy326ddr-0%2Fama-doesnt-speak-for-me.html I've started a Facebook group:"I'm a doctor, and the AMA doesn't speak for me"I hope my colleagues will consider joining.One of the group members linked to this article:Abraham Verghese on the AMA (Source: hemodynamics) hemodynamics blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2477684 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:54:00 +0100 2477684 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2452443&cid=t_238866_87_f&fid=34872&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blisstree.com%2Fhealthbolt%2Fis-google-killing-the-medical-riddle%2F Medical students learn not only by textbook and labs, but also by being challenged by medical riddle offered up by their professors and lecturers. Once, medical students would have to “formulate hypotheses, go to the book, research and eliminate possibilities . . . and come to the answer” making the medical riddle a valuable learning tool. But these days, with google, this process is almost defunct. Students can simple keyword the riddle into google search and come up with the answer in a matter of seconds.   Stanford’s Abraham Verghese now adds to a caveat to all his medical riddles - Don’t google it. Here’s his latest… A man walks into a bar, offers to keep his head completely submerged in a bucket of water for twenty minutes and if he doesnt he will buy drinks all around an... Healthbolt blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2452443 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:28:10 +0100 2452443 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2386905&cid=t_238866_99_f&fid=35344&url=http%3A%2F%2Fzackarysholemberger.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fwhat-are-we-to-learn-at-bedside-re.html This article makes as powerful a case as any I've read for the re-centering and re-honing of my skills, and it comes at just the right time, when I have the chance to make a transition to be the kind of doctor I want to be. But Verghese is confused in his defense of the physical exam - he doesn't know what rationale he wants to focus on, or how he feels about physical diagnosis as justified (or questioned) by evidence-based medicine. Here he is in one place:If one eschews the skilled and repeated examination of the real patient, then simpl diagnoses and new developments are overlooked, while tests, consultations, and procedures that might not be needed are ordered.This is the argument from efficiency, or maybe from diagnostic rigor - exceeded somewhat by Verghese's clear affection for the... Zackary Sholem Berger blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2386905 Mon, 04 May 2009 03:59:00 +0100 2386905