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A Candle in the Dark

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The struggle between reason and superstition has raged for centuries. Since the Age of Enlightenment, the proponents of science have mainly carried the day. The byproduct of these victories is a world replete with material abundance, technological wonders, and healthy children. Unfortunately, the rise of political regimes promoting misinformation and quackery presents a unique threat to the public good. As experts in healthcare and guardians of patient well-being, physicians have a crucial role in combating this dangerous trend. Nearly three decades ago, astronomer Carl Sagan published The Demon-Haunted World , a book dedicated to educating the public about the scientific method and the importance of critical thinking. In general, Sagan was hopeful that science would prevail by serving as a “candle in the dark.” Despite his optimism, a sense of dread permeated his writing. He took note of the explosive growth of the Internet in the 1990s and observed that pre-millennial America wa...
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Backstage People

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Remarks on being named South Carolina Family Physician of the Year, June 2024. I am humbled and incredibly grateful for this honor. Let me start by thanking the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Academy of Family Physicians and our Executive Vice President, Paquita Turner, for allowing me to serve in this organization for the past three decades. I also want to recognize my wife, Betty, for her support, encouragement, and patience for nearly 42 years. This honor means the world to me — but, honestly, I can’t get over a nagging feeling. If you have imposter syndrome, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the feeling that maybe you don’t deserve it. Imposter syndrome is very common in our profession. I saw a recent study that said forty percent of physicians have this affliction. Betty, however, has a different name for this phenomenon. She calls us Backstage People. For many years, Betty and I volunteered with our local professional ballet company (no we didn’t dance!). For ...
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Prior Authorization

Recently a managed care plan notified me that one of my patients should be taking daily aspirin for secondary prevention of heart disease. A quick review of the chart showed that we had discussed this before, and the patient was likely already taking aspirin. Sadly, his medication list did not accurately reflect this fact. “I’ll fix that,” I thought, and entered an order for aspirin 81 mg daily. I’m sure you can imagine the next thing that rolled out of our fax machine: A prior authorization request for a 126-year-old generic drug that costs less than $1 for 100 tablets. How did we get to this point? In the halcyon days of yore, doctors wrote their orders, and somebody paid for it—no questions asked. Well, that is not exactly true. In the 1960s and earlier, most people paid for medical care out-of-pocket (or simply did without if they could not afford the treatment). It was the advent of Medicare, Medicaid, and the expansion of employer-sponsored health insurance that shifted the fina...
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Medicine on a Grand Scale

Politics and healthcare are inseparable. This relationship is epitomized by Virchow’s oft-quoted declaration, “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale.” Through most of the modern age—and certainly during our lifetimes—this has been a beneficial relationship, despite the vicissitudes of electoral politics. Apart from fringe movements, the progress of medical science has been endorsed, regardless of party affiliation. Unfortunately, there are alarming signs that the political consensus on the benefits of immunization is imperiled Medical students learn of German physician Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) by way of his eponyms: Virchow’s node, the harbinger of gastric malignancy, and Virchow’s triad, the factors that provoke thromboembolism, a term he invented. Virchow’s other accomplishments include the development of cell theory and the coining of numerous medical terms—from agenesis to zoonosis. For these achievements, Virchow is conside...
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Healthcare is a Team Sport

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There is a well-known painting that endures as an icon for compassionate medical care. Entitled The Doctor , it was the creation of Sir Luke Fildes, a renowned artist of the Victorian Age. The painting depicts a gravely ill child in a poor family’s cottage. Watching over the child is the eponymous doctor, illuminated by a solitary lamp. In the background, the desperate parents are revealed by the predawn glow on the windowsill, perhaps foretelling a new day and hope for recovery.  The Doctor , Luke Fildes, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons Fildes was able to capture the drama of a life-threatening illness because he had firsthand experience. In 1877, his one-year-old son died of typhoid fever. This was before the age of antibiotics, immunizations, and public health. Doctors at that time had little scientific training and the nursing profession was still in its infancy. The prospect of ...
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The Absurdity of Medical Freedom

Archie Cochrane (1909-1988) was one of the fathers of evidence-based medicine and the namesake of the Cochrane Collaboration. His professional life was profoundly influenced by his experience as a World War II prisoner of war. While serving as a physician in the British Army, he was captured during the Battle of Crete in May 1941. He spent the rest of the war as a medical officer in POW camps. Eventually, he was placed in charge of caring for Allied prisoners suffering from tuberculosis. The resurgence of tuberculosis during the war was a public health catastrophe. At that time there were no effective antibiotics for tuberculosis. The options available to Cochrane consisted of either bed rest or an intervention such as pneumothorax or thoracoplasty. Bed rest does have a physiologic basis (lying flat reduces the oxygen tension in the lung apices). As for the other treatments, no one knew if they really worked. These therapies were based on opinion—and ...
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Drops and Salve

Isaac Woodard was born on a sharecropper farm in Fairfield County, South Carolina in 1919. When the United States entered World War II, Woodard enlisted in the Army and served in a segregated support unit during the campaign to liberate New Guinea. Woodard rose to the rank of sergeant and earned the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. At the end of the war, like other soldiers, he embarked on the arduous journey home to what should have been a grateful nation. After traveling by ship from Manila to New York City, he traveled by troop train to Camp Gordon near Augusta, Georgia. On February 12, 1946, Woodard stepped aboard a Greyhound bus for the final leg of his journey home. He was still wearing his Army uniform. Having survived the perils of the Pacific theater, and after traveling halfway around the world, he was soon to face the most dangerous part of his journey: A bus ride through South Carolina. When the bus reached Ba...
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