News
Expert advice
Addressing the reasons people give for their positions, or the reasons others assign to them, may sometimes help people reconsider.
Opinion
When can your hypochondria help patients?
Hypochondriacs with medical degrees cannot reassure themselves, but we can bring useful experience to help other members of the worry club.
Opinion
I am the best. Sometimes.
The fifth and last time I was listed as Best of Boston was in 2019, when I shared honors with obstetrics, ice cream, interior design, and...
Opinion
Arguing with doctors
People argue with doctors for the same reason they argue with anybody – because they think they know better.
Opinion
Fenway data, the final frontier
You may have managed patients for decades and have a hunch about who needs immediate help and who can be watched. But "senses" and "hunches" can't...
Opinion
The joys of telemedicine
Maybe it’s time to go back to the office.
Opinion
Practice During the Pandemic
I have nothing but sympathy for those who are not emeritus, who have practices to sustain and families to feed.
Opinion
Emeritus
Asking what an emeritus does all day sounds fair, but the question is harder to answer than it sounds.
Opinion
The fundamental things apply
I wrote my first column for this periodical 22 years ago; this will be my last.
Opinion
I have seen the future
Sometimes you have to look backward to look forward.
Opinion
Rules of incivility
Our job, often hard, is to always be civil. Society has zero tolerance for our ever being anything else.
Opinion
Rescue fantasies
In Walter Mitty moments, many of us daydream of glory: We’ll make that big discovery, score that disruptive app, homer in the bottom of the ninth...
Opinion
I don’t have much use for evidence
Evidence applies to populations, whereas I treat people, one at a time.
Opinion
Fear
Fear mystifies. Fear masquerades. Fear can be trivial or terrifying. But fear is always there.
Opinion
Retail neurosis
When I stopped by last August to pick up new eyeglass lenses, Harold the optician sat alone in his shop.