Q: What does disrespect look like from a patient’s perspective?
A: The most obvious form is waiting. Much more serious, though, is not getting a full explanation of what’s going on. Another example is, when something goes wrong, a lack of honesty in admitting what happened. Also, what strikes patients as disrespectful is having to fill out that clipboard every time they go to a physician’s office regardless of how many times they’ve been there.
Santtu Mustonen
In Finer Focus
Bringing never-before-seen structures into view, today’s microscopy is dispelling cartoon concepts and answering unanticipated questions.
Do We Need So Much?
Techniques of “bloodless” surgery, honed for those who refuse transfusions, could help stem what many call an overuse of blood.
Same Genes, Different Fates
Few identical twins suffer identical maladies, leading science to probe the significance of epigenetic changes that make paths diverge.
Making Up Disaster
All the terrifying world’s a stage, and artists borrow tools of the theater to give models in drills remarkably lifelike wounds and burns.
The New Nursing Home
Can an aging nation transform the places no one wants to be? Innovations show the way, but the cost could mean slow progress.
Breath Tests: In One Breath
The air you exhale carries a wealth of clinical data, and scientists are fashioning ever more precise methods for divining its truths.
Model Organs in Miniature
Microscopic models—half living, half not—may prove more reliable than animals in explaining human disease and testing therapies.
Venture Philanthropy: A New Driver for Research
Disease foundations that use a venture capital model get a stake in the breakthroughs they fund. Not everyone thinks that's a good idea.
As a surgeon, I am critically aware of how informed consent has changed over the last several decades. It is no longer appropriate to assume that the doctor knows best.
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super-utilizers [sü-pər yü-tə-ˌlīz-ərs] n: patients with multiple chronic conditions who overuse emergency departments and hospital inpatient services, and who are the focus of increasing efforts to coordinate care and thus keep them out of the hospital.
