From Dr Brian’s Desk
Medicine, explained by the doctor in the room.
Honest takes on navigating the healthcare system, staying healthy, and what direct care actually looks like in practice -- from a physician who's been on both sides of the bed.
Gains and Costs — When Medicine Could Do Almost Anything (Except Listen)
CT scanners, organ transplants, statins, EHRs, prior authorizations, eight-minute visits. The most powerful medicine in human history. So why does it so often feel cold?
The Golden Age — How Antibiotics Saved Lives and Built an Industry
Between 1940 and 1965, medicine learned to cure things it had previously only watched. It also became, for the first time in American history, an industry. Both things happened at the same time. Neither is reversible.
From Hearth to Hospital — How Medicine Moved Out of the Home
Within a single generation, the doctor stopped coming to your house. He started waiting for you in his. Here's what we gained, and what we quietly lost.
The Doctor — Why an 1891 Painting Hangs in My Exam Room
A Victorian painting, a Christmas morning in 1877, and the older idea of medicine that direct care is trying to recover.