"There are more things in heaven and earth, (Horatio), than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
-Shakespeare
Cold or warm, tired or well rested, despised or honored, hated or loved, happy or sad, we all face life in its many varied forms. The trauma of existence is placated only by the moments of free thought, of fulfilled desire, of understanding. So what is in these many moments where life exists that makes us want more.
Turns out, if you have time to pay attention to little matters of time where true grit as true happiness lives, you might come away with that it is in seeing the joy in another’s face.
Nowhere is life more evident, more clear, more raw as in caring for another human in need. Physicians qualify in this realm more than in any other discipline.
Physicians live in a unique world of elation and despair. The wildly gyrating confines of this existence gives motive and cover to the mind of a physician. That one patient who finds cure from an interminable illness promises the healing for the many in despair. Each person is a life, each person a story, each person a face of society, brings with him or her a quality unique to humanity. No two individuals are alike. Therefore no two can be treated alike.
The former President Jimmy Carter just made news with a report from his recent cancer follow up MRI that showed complete radiological remission of the brain metastasis from the malignant melanoma. His treatment included radiation therapy and Keytruda, an anti PD-1 immune therapy. There are several interesting and promising signs from this reveal. First, healing an individual and especially a former president at the age of 91 is worth noting. So age should not be a limit to proper treatment at any age. Notwithstanding experts like Zeke Emmanuel, MD who implied that after 75 years of age, people should not be treated and that they should be retired to the pastures. The obvious flaw stands out in stark relief now, doesn't it? Second, aging individuals have a lot of wisdom to offer and the young ones should take note of any pearls they drop in their communications. it is obvious that President Carter has a lot to say about his life and the world he has inhabited. Whatever that wisdom is. Wisdom is a philosophy on to itself. And you ask what is Philosophy? nothing more than the “love of wisdom” as Pythagoras called it, or the knowing the underlying fundamental nature of reality. One can tease at the fibers of this philosophy fabric and even in its threadbare form it reeks of some ancient understanding steeped deep into the veins of knowledge-keepers where blood flows.
Philosophy must be wise and therefore rational? Right? “ça dépend!” It depends on many things, but most of all on the questioning of all that is there. An individual’s philosophy would differ, based epistemologically on his or her beliefs, ideas, attitudes of the community and nurturing.
Our philosophy is nothing more than an improvement in our understanding of nature and ourselves. So should we then change the current thought paradigm that places age and cost ahead of fixing illness?
Consider this question; Should we advocate death as the primary focus in healthcare? Some will proffer the cost as a major hurdle for treating the elderly. They will claim that healthcare costs are currently 17% of the GDP in the United States. But they fail to recognize that costs are not due to the care administered, but as New York Times recently pointed out; a direct result of the business people involved in administrating the business of medicine. So if that vital middling managers can be eliminated, the cost of care would come down drastically and become at once really affordable. More people would get treated and their insurance carriers would not be averse to paying for the care while still making oodles of money for their CEOs (Median total compensation in 2014 for the 117 CEOs for whom Modern Healthcare collected compensation data was $5.4 million, with a median increase of 9.6% over the prior year) and their shareholders.
Consider another question; Should we use a standardized lesson plan of “Choosing Wisely” as advocated by the American Board of Internal Medicine and co-opted by other entities like American College of Physicians as the correct model of patient care? Experts say these programs are based on “Evidence based Medicine.” What is “Evidence?” I ask. Evidence changes as new information is received. So what is standard today becomes an “old thought: tomorrow. And further if the evidence is conjured by a set of tortured statistics, that furthers the illness within the science of medicine, how exactly does that further the agenda of good patient care? It is akin to building a perfect emptiness contained within straight lines in a chaotic world. Most of us would love to live within those bounds of comfort, happily suckling on sweet nectar without a care, but is that reality? Defining evidence is at best difficult! Yet if we claim “Evidence” as evidence enough to change belief of the majority, then all is pardoned and acceptable. And therein emerges the concept of “Evidentialism,” writ large "Evidentialism is a theory of justification according to which the justification of a conclusion depends solely on the evidence for it." The new subconscious is derived from consciousness at individual level and new belief becomes the new zeitgeist for that individual. And justification upon justification becomes the unwieldy latticework difficult to untangle for most except for those independent thinkers.
As the Big Data scientists gather their tools and computers, a cry from one of its own Hannes Leitgeib said, “ Overall and ultimately, mathematical methods are necessary for philosophical progress.” Ah yes, this progress, where we find the sinews of medicine wasting away today under the hard, weighty chains of pseudo-scientific tortured statistics. The general and special belief system slowly mutates to the turn of their statistical screw.
So, what is your philosophy as a physician in caring for your patient?
Maybe it is time for some Critical Thinking?
Maybe it is time for some thoughtful analysis?
Maybe it is time!
Cold or warm, tired or well rested, despised or honored, hated or loved, happy or sad, we all face life in its many varied forms. The trauma of existence is placated only by the moments of free thought, of fulfilled desire, of understanding. So what is in these many moments where life exists that makes us want more.
Turns out, if you have time to pay attention to little matters of time where true grit as true happiness lives, you might come away with that it is in seeing the joy in another’s face.
Nowhere is life more evident, more clear, more raw as in caring for another human in need. Physicians qualify in this realm more than in any other discipline.
Physicians live in a unique world of elation and despair. The wildly gyrating confines of this existence gives motive and cover to the mind of a physician. That one patient who finds cure from an interminable illness promises the healing for the many in despair. Each person is a life, each person a story, each person a face of society, brings with him or her a quality unique to humanity. No two individuals are alike. Therefore no two can be treated alike.
The former President Jimmy Carter just made news with a report from his recent cancer follow up MRI that showed complete radiological remission of the brain metastasis from the malignant melanoma. His treatment included radiation therapy and Keytruda, an anti PD-1 immune therapy. There are several interesting and promising signs from this reveal. First, healing an individual and especially a former president at the age of 91 is worth noting. So age should not be a limit to proper treatment at any age. Notwithstanding experts like Zeke Emmanuel, MD who implied that after 75 years of age, people should not be treated and that they should be retired to the pastures. The obvious flaw stands out in stark relief now, doesn't it? Second, aging individuals have a lot of wisdom to offer and the young ones should take note of any pearls they drop in their communications. it is obvious that President Carter has a lot to say about his life and the world he has inhabited. Whatever that wisdom is. Wisdom is a philosophy on to itself. And you ask what is Philosophy? nothing more than the “love of wisdom” as Pythagoras called it, or the knowing the underlying fundamental nature of reality. One can tease at the fibers of this philosophy fabric and even in its threadbare form it reeks of some ancient understanding steeped deep into the veins of knowledge-keepers where blood flows.
Philosophy must be wise and therefore rational? Right? “ça dépend!” It depends on many things, but most of all on the questioning of all that is there. An individual’s philosophy would differ, based epistemologically on his or her beliefs, ideas, attitudes of the community and nurturing.
Our philosophy is nothing more than an improvement in our understanding of nature and ourselves. So should we then change the current thought paradigm that places age and cost ahead of fixing illness?
Consider this question; Should we advocate death as the primary focus in healthcare? Some will proffer the cost as a major hurdle for treating the elderly. They will claim that healthcare costs are currently 17% of the GDP in the United States. But they fail to recognize that costs are not due to the care administered, but as New York Times recently pointed out; a direct result of the business people involved in administrating the business of medicine. So if that vital middling managers can be eliminated, the cost of care would come down drastically and become at once really affordable. More people would get treated and their insurance carriers would not be averse to paying for the care while still making oodles of money for their CEOs (Median total compensation in 2014 for the 117 CEOs for whom Modern Healthcare collected compensation data was $5.4 million, with a median increase of 9.6% over the prior year) and their shareholders.
Consider another question; Should we use a standardized lesson plan of “Choosing Wisely” as advocated by the American Board of Internal Medicine and co-opted by other entities like American College of Physicians as the correct model of patient care? Experts say these programs are based on “Evidence based Medicine.” What is “Evidence?” I ask. Evidence changes as new information is received. So what is standard today becomes an “old thought: tomorrow. And further if the evidence is conjured by a set of tortured statistics, that furthers the illness within the science of medicine, how exactly does that further the agenda of good patient care? It is akin to building a perfect emptiness contained within straight lines in a chaotic world. Most of us would love to live within those bounds of comfort, happily suckling on sweet nectar without a care, but is that reality? Defining evidence is at best difficult! Yet if we claim “Evidence” as evidence enough to change belief of the majority, then all is pardoned and acceptable. And therein emerges the concept of “Evidentialism,” writ large "Evidentialism is a theory of justification according to which the justification of a conclusion depends solely on the evidence for it." The new subconscious is derived from consciousness at individual level and new belief becomes the new zeitgeist for that individual. And justification upon justification becomes the unwieldy latticework difficult to untangle for most except for those independent thinkers.
As the Big Data scientists gather their tools and computers, a cry from one of its own Hannes Leitgeib said, “ Overall and ultimately, mathematical methods are necessary for philosophical progress.” Ah yes, this progress, where we find the sinews of medicine wasting away today under the hard, weighty chains of pseudo-scientific tortured statistics. The general and special belief system slowly mutates to the turn of their statistical screw.
So, what is your philosophy as a physician in caring for your patient?
Maybe it is time for some Critical Thinking?
Maybe it is time for some thoughtful analysis?
Maybe it is time!
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