A Medical Perspective on the Negligent Homicide of Eric Garner

I am not going to get into the larger sociopolitical issues surrounding the death of Eric Garner.  I don't want anything to distract from sharing one observation that has not been widely reported, and which may lead to at least one change that every police department in the country should implement.

Is Obesity more like Crime, Cigarettes, or Sex?

Obesity is a massive problem.  35℅ of America is obese.  Democrats are worried that their prized social welfare programs will collapse under the weight of the problem.  Republicans are worried that they will only be able to invade 1 country every 8 years, as the military finds itself forced to accept increasingly sluggish recruits.  Regardless of how you look at it (and how many puns I can make), this is a serious issue.  But how to frame it makes a massive difference in what tactics and tools it makes sense to pursue.

The Lost Glory Days of General Practice, and a Vision of it's Resurrection

I'm on my family medicine rotation right now.  One of my preceptors is ~80 years old, and went through medical school in the 1960s.  He is still sharp as a tack, and quite possibly the most BAMF-ing family practitioner of all time.  He used to do c-sections, hernia repairs, appendectomies, fracture repairs, and get this- emergency burr holes for subdural hematomas (aka neurosurgery).  He stopped ~1997, mostly because he got tired of his morning cases getting bumped constantly for overnight emergencies and throwing off his schedule for the rest of the day when he had clinic in the afternoon.  He has since moved out to Palm Springs, where he still sees more patients than any of his fellow physicians in the group, still does all his own trigger finger release surgeries and SCC/BCC excisions, and still administers the group.  In addition to all this, he is one of the nicest people I've ever met, beloved by his patients.  He truly epitomizes the fading glory days of family medicine, the ideal of the General Practitioner who could truly do it all.