Volume XXVl, No. 3
June 2012
The Independent Medical Business Newspaper
A better toolbox Palliative care comes to the outpatient oncology clinic By Charles Bransford, MD
I
n September 2006, I began doing palliative care consultations in our outpatient oncology clinic. I admit that my motive for working in our oncology clinic stemmed from the strong bias that much of my work would entail helping patients stop chemotherapy. I assumed it would be obvious when chemotherapy was causing more harm then good and patients were continuing therapy simply because they thought they had no other viable choice. This is often the fear oncologists have of palliative care doctors—that they will encourage oncology patients to stop chemotherapy too soon. Initially, my consultations involved stage IV metastatic cancer patients who had no further options for treatment and the oncology team was struggling with how to tell their patient it was time to stop, especially
B.C.
For someone who spent much of his professional life dissecting human cadavers, Herophilus had a remarkably astute understanding of the importance of maintaining bodily and mental health. More than 2,000 years later, physicians are coming to understand that we need attend to our personal health if we are going to improve overall population health. We know that physicians are not immune to the effects of disease, both physical and emotional. In fact, physicians may experience STRESSED to page 10
PAID
By Keith Stelter, MD
—Herophilus, Greek physician, 335–280
IN THIS ISSUE: Architecture Page 20
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
Strategies to handle the stresses of today’s medical practice environment
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Detriot Lakes, MN Permit No. 2655
Stressed out?
TOOLBOX to page 14
hen health is absent Wisdom cannot reveal itself Art cannot manifest Strength cannot fight Wealth becomes useless, And intelligence cannot be applied.