Back to my Blog

I’m returning to my blog for two reasons: 1. It may help me sell books, and 2. It gives me the opportunity to express what motivates me to write.

Medical fiction, TV, and big-screen productions have posed difficulties for me. While I appreciate great writing in any form, inaccuracy and faulty plot lines drive me nuts. My wife, Dorlis and I cringe when actors study and comment on x-rays that are upside down or backwards or when they mispronounce medical terms. This isn’t a big deal for the average viewer, but it may serve as a harbinger of other problems in the production. If producers hired medical consultants, they could eliminate these problems. In addition, many productions highlight only the most dramatic elements of medical illness while excluding those most important to patients and their families. Unfortunately, medical scenes as portrayed are far removed from reality (and I'm not just talking about handsome/beautiful physicians and nurses). 

I deal with these issues in my novels but in my blog, I can be more direct:

1.     Does your doc have only your best interests at heart?

2.     Does your doctor know when he/she is over his/her head and is he/she willing to ask for help?

3.     How patient/family attitudes/actions influence medical professionals (who are human after all).

4.     How much care is too much care? (a major problem in the healthcare crisis ahead)

5.     Do physicians and patients really understand the risk/benefit profiles of medications, surgeries, and other procedures?

6.     Physicians and patients can be caring or uncaring, intelligent or stupid, hardworking or slothful, patient or impatient, risk averse or thrill-seeking, dedicated or indifferent…name your own adjectives.

In medicine, like in life, the first step in dealing with problems is to acknowledge them.