Post Archive by Month

Second day of winter during a weekend-long shift batch. Our ED augmented staffing for “surge mode” starting this month to accommodate an expected influx of patients that has materialized reliably every year during flu season. The kids have already left for Sunday School (thank you, brilliant wife, for arranging carpool!). My wife heads out the door to what will be …

I developed respect and affinity for Dr. Cory Fawcett, the “repurposed” general surgeon, at Fin Con 18. Cory’s an unusual combination of a down-to-earth personality with an entrepreneurial spirit that continues to impress me, and we’ve stayed in periodic touch via email since the conference. I follow his blog, have reviewed his books, and even tried online locum tenens course …

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I came across this article detailing the fallacy that the University of Washington’s Emergency/Safe Ride Home Program has become. It made me thankful…to longer be in residency. The ACGME, which accredits residency programs, created a common program requirement for fatigue mitigation processes: It is expected that programs adopt fatigue mitigation processes and ensure that there are …

Barcelona represents the best of Spain.This is no accident – the city manages to check every conceivable box on a traveler’s wish list. You like food? Street food? Foodie food? International cuisine? Fusion? How about easily accessible beach towns (Sitges)? Shopping your thing? How about a mall on the ocean? Fashion? Art? Parks? Sidewalk cafe culture? People watching? Architecture? Culture …

My daughter recently entered the sixth grade, which in our district marks the the first year of intermediate school (a.k.a,  junior high). The transition was brusque. She graduated from a tender, loving elementary school where duckling students imprinted on gracious teachers they all hoped to someday emulate. Although there were occasional grumps and malcontents on the faculty, the overall experience …

San Sebastian (Basque name: Donostia) is an embarrassment of riches kind of town in Spain. Located on the Bay of Biscay down the shore from the border with France, a gentle scallop-shaped beach is protected from waves by an island that protects a quaint ocean inlet. San Sebastian established its resort bona fides in the 1860s when Spanish royalty (taking …

The math of wealth is based on earning, saving and investing. The art of feeling wealthy is about the stealthy accumulation of marginal gains, disciplined spending habits based on parsimony, and relishing the weight in your pocket of those small figurative and literal coins others will not deign to pick up. Someone tried to shame me at the beach yesterday …

You never step in the same river twice The saying above is one of my favorites from Gasem, a gadfly,  friend and frequent guest-poster. As a post college graduation gift, armed with an airline ticket gifted by an uncle who was generous with stockpiled frequent flier miles and a Eurail pass from my parents, I took my inaugural trip to …

Jerome Groopman, a Harvard Professor of Medicine, recently wrote in his capacity as staff writer for the New Yorker about using science to change habits. The piece provided insights and support from the literature about why certain strategies (from financial to healthy living) work while others fail. One fascinating aspect was a new understanding of the famous Stanford marshmallow experiment. …