A newborn with congenital rubella. Many of my patients choose not to vaccinate their children. I welcome these patients and, frankly, love each of them. […]
Male Circumcision
Egyptian depiction of circumcision from 1360 BC I get this question a lot and have avoided writing about it for some time. But, alas, we […]
Levels of Evidence
If you read (or produce) scientific literature, you are hopefully aware of and use some system to appreciate how good a particular type of study […]
The Serena Syndrome
(Note: I have no personal knowledge of Serena Williams’ pregnancy or the care she received. This article is based on publicly available information only and […]
Physician Competency
Most physicians are incompetent. There; I said it. If you read howardisms on a regular basis, you might have already suspected this. Lots of evidence […]
Help! How Can I Do Fewer Cesareans?!!?
Comparison of Friedman and Zhang labor curves I’ve noticed that a lot of doctors don’t like the suggestion that their cesarean delivery rate is too […]
Regression to the Mean
In life, we don’t tend to notice the mediocre or the average; rather, we notice extremes. We never think about the weather on an average […]
The Medical Hype Cycle (The Herrell Curve?)
When a breakthrough innovation, new test, or new treatment is discovered in medicine, its adoption often follows a typical pattern. This pattern is demonstrated graphically […]
Fact Check: Mercury Content in Flu Shot
Mercury. It must be the cause of all our problems today. So, if you’re worried about it, here’s some data: One can of tuna has […]
Fact Check: Caffeine and Fibrocystic Change?
I hear it and see it all the time: caffeine causes fibrocystic change or at least makes the pain and breast tenderness associated with fibrocystic […]