May 16, 2019

Many years ago my younger son and I were able to make a trip to Washington, DC, as part of a scholarship program he received after being recommended by one of his elementary school teachers. Looking back, I'm not sure that the scholarship was any great thing except to raise money for the company that sponsored it; but, still it was a good experience as we toured our nation’s capital with its many sights. After his classes one day, we took the Metro and a bus to the Mount Vernon estate where President George Washington once walked the earth. I remember the beautiful weather with its cobalt blue skies of October, the Potomac River and seeing the great man’s estate with my son. It was a thrill to both of us. Like most Americans, I have always had a great interest in George Washington and have read several books about him The one I enjoyed the most is called His Excellency George Washington, written by Joseph J. Ellis.

April 17, 2019

March 20, 2019

It is interesting that now, with talk of Medicare for All and single-payer health care system being bantered about, a good number of doctors, hospital leaders, pharmaceutical companies executives, and CEOs of insurance companies are banning together to kill these proposals, according to recent news reports. These groups are organizing a massive campaign, they call the Partnership for America's Health Care Future, to provide "counter-messaging" against Medicare for All and to thwart any effort that moves away from the status quo of private insurance and toward a big new public program.

February 18, 2019

Texas Tech Physicians recently partnered with NarrativeDx, a company that retrieves patient comments from social media and Press Ganey, and puts them into a dashboard for easy viewing. Each clinic has a section in the dashboard where users can view positive and negative comments, as well as trending sentiment, areas of opportunity and negative and positive themes.

January 17, 2019

It seems to me we need more plain language in medicine when interacting with our patients. Let’s help them out in our communication—not use so much jargon and multisyllabic words.

December 17, 2018

November 16, 2018

October 18, 2018

For more than ten years, Texas Tech Physicians actively has promoted the SPIRIT values developed by a team within the practice and unanimously approved by the Texas Tech Physicians board. The values include: service excellence, patient first, integrity, respect, innovation and teamwork - and stand for SPIRIT.

October 17, 2018

August 13, 2018

A New York Times article by Amitha Kalaichandran, M.D., caught my eye. The author calls walking "forest bathing." Don't let that name throw you, it is just walking through the woods and observing what you see, hear, smell and experience.