Expertise Is The Mantra Of Modern Medicine.

The Possibilities And Probabilities Are All We Have To Work With In Medicine, Though. What We Are Drawn To In This Imperfect Science, What We In Fact Covet In Our Way, Is The Alterable Moment-the Fragile But Crystalline Opportunity For One's Know-how, Ability, Or Just Gut Instinct To Change The Course Of Another's Life For The Better.

The Evidence Is That People Who Enter Hospice Don't Have Shorter Lives. In Many Cases They Are Longer.

Our Reluctance To Honestly Examine The Experience Of Aging And Dying Has Increased The Harm We Inflict On People And Denied Them The Basic Comforts They Most Need.

Having Great Components Is Not Enough, And Yet We've Been Obsessed In Medicine With Components. We Want The Best Drugs, The Best Technologies, The Best Specialists, But We Don't Think Too Much About How It All Comes Together.

Go Back To The '30s, '40s, '50s, And It Was The Discovery Of Heroic Interventions, The Ability To Cure People With Penicillin Or Do An Operation To Stop Disease That Was What Saved The Day. Primary Care Physicians Couldn't Do All That Much That Really Demonstrated A Difference. The People Who Control And Work With You To Control Your Blood Pressure, They're Not Rewarded For Doing That Or To Be Innovative About Doing That. So, The Result Is Half Of Americans Have Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure, Despite Seeing Clinicians.