Mercy Medical Center - Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. - Winter Room

21 Jeffrey Miller, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Director of Clinical Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA.

McCleary Center - Friday, 8:00 a.m.

30 Sarojini Budden, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Medical Director, Rett Syndrome Clinic, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR.

Tumor Boards

Mercy Medical Center - Tuesday, 12:00 noon
St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center - Friday, 7:00 a.m.
Breast Care Panel - Saint Alphonsus RMC - Tuesday, 7:00 a.m.
St. Luke's Regional Medical Center - Tuesday, 12:00 noon
Breast Tumor Board - St. Luke's RMC - Thursday, 7:00 a.m.
MSTI Pediatric Tumor Board - 2nd & 4th Wednesday, 12:00 noon

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why does it have locks on the door?

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

May 2004

 5 Use and Misuse of Feeding Tubes in the Cognitively Impaired, Kevin Clifford, MD
 7 Skin Cancer: Undeclared Epidemic, Stanley Hill, MD
12 Update on HRT, Albert Yuzpe, MD
14 Psychiatric Emergencies, Darin Signorelli, MD
21 Health Effects of Air Quality, Holly Lenz, PhD
26 Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy: Pro's and Con's, Avery Seifert, MD

June 2004

 2 Primary Prevention of Suture Related Sharps Injuries and Other Blood Injuries, Steve Bierman, MD
 4 Food Borne Disease, Leslie Tengelson, DVM
 9 The Role of Community Health Centers, Jonathan Bowman, MD (Mercy)
23 Wilderness Medicine
30 National Patient Safety Goals for Pain Management, Steve Dorman, MD

In this era of aggressive self-assertion, "in your face" trash talking and looking out for number one, it may seem trite to mention the necessity of this virtue in our profession. We physicians need a certain amount of self- confidence and ego to do what we do but it often manifests itself as arrogance and hubris. This arrogance and pomposity seem to elicit special rancor from the public when exhibited by physicians. Often our training has instilled in us a certain arrogance. I suppose any professional group which uses state-of-the-art technology and has special expertise regarding something so dear to most people is more likely to be accused of lacking humility. One needs only to peruse the daily newspaper and yellow pages to see examples of our arrogance. We have ourselves believing we can correct any infirmary. We often forget that time alone heals many of our infirmities and patients do get well without our ministrations.

The practice of medicine has its own way of keeping one humbled. Just when we master some new technique or learn a new treatment, a better one comes along. Things may go wrong when seemingly everything has been done correctly. Patients may present with atypical symptoms, or one doesn't think of a diagnosis. Medicine is an inexact science with much art and the balancing of possibilities hence, errors in judgement do occur.

The humility of which I speak would be able to say to patients, "I don't know"; would acknowledge mistakes, and learn from them and would put patients needs ahead of their own. Good physicians are always aware of their limitations and are constantly striving to better themselves through CME and self-study.

"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right." Ezra Taft Benson

John J. Mohr, M.D.