December 7, 2008 – 9:53 PM
So, the handful of people out there who read this blog may have loaded jamesloganmd.com into their respective web browsers this weekend only to find that the site is completely and royally fucked. You won't be able to comment on this post anytime soon as the comments don't work. In fact, it's a miracle you're even reading this post at all. I suppose this is what I get for upgrading to version 4.23 of movable type from version 4.12. I think it'll eventually be ok. I'm going to be struggling with making this site work again over the next days and weeks. For now, I'm going to give a date of January 2 January 9, 2009 as a tentative release date for the next version of jamesloganmd.com. Please, don't delete me from your blogrolls, favorites, bookmark pages or feed readers. And, if I'm not there already, add me because jamesloganmd.com version 3.0 is going to be better than ever!
In the meantime, you can direct comments and questions regarding this site to james [at] jamesloganmd [dot] com.
December 4, 2008 – 4:26 AM
#1 Dinosaur wrote a really good post a few days ago about what the proper role of a doctor is. The ensuing discussion seems to show that there is no clear consensus among doctors about just what our job is. Is it an opthalmologist's job to counsel her patients on weight loss and smoking cessation - given the opportunity - or not? My take on this question is the following: the doctor's job is to serve the patient. To that end you, as a practioner, are functioning broadly within either one or the other of two capacities. You are either a) addressing a patient's complaint or b) identifying things for which it is appropriate to screen a patient and providing said screening. Capacity b) is relevant only in situations when a patient would want and expect to be screened for things. Examples would include routine physical's, well woman visits, well child visits, prenatal appointments, etc. Nobody ever goes to the emergency expecting to be screened for things. Nobody ever goes to their cardiologist expecting a refferal for a mammogram. Nobody goes to their dentist expecting a prostate exam. Or, maybe they do. In which case, by all means, take care of whatever primary care needs your patient has - one stop shopping, as it were. They'll thank you for it. But, the bottom line is, whether you're a doctor or any other kind of service provider, if you are trying to provide a service which isn't being requested of you then you're not doing your job very well.
December 1, 2008 – 3:48 PM
I hear this question asked every so often, usually by older relatives of their 16 to 30 year old nieces, nephews and cousins whenever they supply any kind of foodstuff to a family gathering. As in, "Ah, tuna caserole! That looks great. Where did you learn to cook?" I rarely understand what is meant when this question is asked and will inevitabley loose all powers of speech whenever it is asked of me. "James, you brought the mashed potatoes - excellent! Where did you learn to cook?" I am never sure how to answer this question. Are they asking where I learned how to read, thus giving me the skills I need to follow a recipe? Are they asking where I learned how to take something that was previously solid and to mash it up, thus making it into something mushy? Are they asking me where I learned how to take something that was previously cold and raw and to put it into the oven thus initiating a chemical reaction by which that something becomes both hot and cooked? Cooking is not rocket science. It's something mankind has known how to do since before there was any language to talk about what it was they were doing. All that we have "learned" since the first caveman roasted his first wooly mammoth in a spit 10,000 years ago has just been a variation on this theme.
Our lives are complex enough as they are. Please, can we refrain from making something as basic as food complicated as well?
