It’s amazing to watch a conversation evolve. Over the past month I have had some great feedback from physicians, nurses and patients about medical professionalism and the concept of physician accountability. In my last blog post I explored the idea that accountability is not based on finger pointing or blame and need not be feared.…
Recently there has been more and more talk at the health system level about the concept of physician accountability. In Ontario this discussion is part of Patients First LHIN-based initiatives that will have primary care accountable at a local level, possibly with dedicated accountability agreements built into our clinical structures. The issue became even more prominent at…
Recently, after my last blog post, a physician colleague shared that in his opinion, “as usual”, I was “overly cheerful and optimistic”. His comment got me thinking. Could this be true? When conveying a complex message or guiding people toward an often difficult goal, can one be too optimistic? Does optimism alienate people? Is it authentic? What effect…
We have come a long way in Canada in getting physicians to adopt digital records systems in the form of office based electronic medical records (EMRs). In Ontario alone over 11,600 physicians (both family doctors and specialists) have EMRs in their practices and are using them with varying levels of sophistication. For many of us,…
For the longest time I have loved writing. As a kid, I used to escape in letters to friends in far away places, stories of adventure and recorded observations of the world around me. I hated diaries, though. I didn’t want to write things that simply listed the events of the day, attached to static…
