Can American Health Care Be Saved:

One thing the health care debate has taught us is that American medicine today is like snowflakes. No two are the same.

From the no wait privileges of concierge medicine, to the ERs and clinics in our poorest urban neighborhood, the medical experience is one of great diversity. Outcomes and wellness care are miles apart. This is unlike any other Western nation.

So what’s it like for a young compassionate doctor venturing into this world, and seeing the suffering, limitations and reality of medicine today?

That’s the story that Dr. Rachael Pearson tells in No Apparent Distress: A Doctor's Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine.

My conversation with Rachel Pearson:

The Humanity That's Missing From Our Health Care Debate

Every day we hear what’s become today’s language of medicine. Time with patients, bending the cost curve, managed care, health saving accounts, primary care, etc. It’s all about medicine as a commodity.

And certainly it is an often finite and limited resource. But lest we forget that it’s also about flesh and blood human beings...both patients and doctors. Your connection to your doctor is simply not the same as your car's connection to it’s mechanic

Arguably, in that difference lies the soul of the physician, that is true beating heart of health care and that can shape patient outcomes.  Understanding this has been the life's work of Dr. Ronald Epstein. He takes us on a journey into that world in Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity

My conversation with Dr. Ronald Epstein: