The recommendations of specialty medical organizations are generally accepted as standards for care. Certainly, doctors with greater training and experience should be the most knowledgeable about their own particular field of expertise, and their advice should represent the best and most up-to-date medical practice. When cardiology groups issue suggestions about...

America's economic picture remains bleak. Employment numbers, industrial output, housing starts all continue to languish. It seems that the only economic measure still rising is one we don't want -- the ever-increasing cost of health care. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported that the average health insurance...

Government decisions on medical policies are often emotionally charged and difficult to make. There are frequently well-meaning people and strong economic forces with competing interests on both sides of health issues. The present approach to these decisions -- avoiding confrontation and hoping things will somehow, miraculously, improve -- has...

One of the greatest advances in medicine over the past half century is the recognition of hypertension as a major cardiovascular risk factor and the awareness of the benefits of treatment. Cardiac death rate has fallen 30 percent and stroke death rate, 50 percent, in large part, because of the...

The manner in which the news media covers medical innovations does an unintentional disservice to American health care by reinforcing the idea that newer approaches always represent real medical advances. The media lead the public to believe that amazing new cures for old disease are always on the horizon. This...

Medical care should be based on firm science and treatment plans should be backed by rigorous studies. With something so important as our health in the balance, we should expect no less. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Medical practice frequently is guided by inadequate studies in which doctors...

America is the fattest nation on earth. About 68 percent of American adults are now classified as overweight, including the 30 percent designated as obese. Along with an increase in the American waistline has come an increase in obesity-related diseases, especially diabetes. The plumping of America has become our second...

When I was a young man, smoking was a choice. It was simple, like wearing brown shoes or black shoes. Some people smoked and others did not. It was just a preference without any deep implications.

On Father's Day, my brother and I, both terribly unoriginal, would give my dad...

As a result of the recent passage of the health care bill an increased number of Americans will be insured and require medical care. More primary care doctors will be needed to direct much of that care. Along with the expanding patient pool, there has evolved a changed American mindset...

The decisions doctors make - what tests to order, what procedures to recommend, and what medications to prescribe - are often influenced by factors other than good medical care. Patient expectations and defensive medicine sway these decisions, as do the economic interests of hospitals, doctors, medical equipment manufacturers, and pharmaceutical...

Without major change, the American health care system
is unsustainable. The high cost of American medicine saps
our economy and, compared to every other developed country,
makes us less economically competitive. The facts are
well-known, but deserve repeating. American health care
consumes 17%...

The argument rages on as Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives decide how to finance our overpriced medical system. Will America adopt extended government coverage through a Medicare type program to compete with private insurers, will we maintain primarily a private system with some type of accommodations for the uninsured,...

If America ever hopes to get some control over the soaring cost of our health care system and at the same time improve quality, we need to question our present health care practices. Medical procedures, testing, and treatments need to be based on sound science and not on pressures from...

Mrs. Treppen had an entourage of specialists: a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, a pulmonologist, a dermatologist, an urologist, an orthopedic surgeon, a gynecologist, and a neurologist. With all those doctors, she had every part of her body covered. I was her internist, and for her my role was not to provide...