Category Archives: Elpern, David J.

American Mohs

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Brett W. Will, David J. Elpern, Roy C. Grekin, Douglas W. JohnsonCorresponding author, BWW Abstract Over 80 years ago, a medical student conceived of a novel approach to remove difficult-to-treat nonmelanoma skin cancers.  The procedure, called Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS), has been refined over the ensuing years and now large numbers of practitioners provide the service.  As the indications have continued to evolve and enlarge, the appropriate use of MMS needs to be addressed.  We look at the history of MMS since its inception and present questions that clinical dermatologists are asking. Most importantly, is MMS overused and if it is, should precautions be taken to temper its overuse? Introduction … Continue reading →

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AMA Board — 2021

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From CMS OpenPayments There are twenty American Medical Association Board members as of September, 2021. Their total reimbursement, as gleaned from the CMS OpenPayments site, is recorded in the Table below. Only one member, an orthopedist, received any significant monies from Industry. Many orthopedists have done research on devices and significant General and Research payments are received by orthopedists, neurosurgeons and some other specialties. It is likely that the AMA has made an effort to keep its board free of members with troubling COI.                        General        Research       Total                          2500 0 2500 SC C FP   450 0 450 CA A Derm   5200 0 5200 TX C … Continue reading →

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A Tribute to Dr. Joe

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by David Williams* (Written before the Covid crisis.) I have just learned that a friend and co-worker has entered end-stage heart failure. He is an aged cardio-thoracic surgeon who left the facility that I work in a week ago. His name is Dr. Joe M. I knew he was ill and knew that he had a cardiac condition but I did not know how advanced it was and is. He must have known. If you have the chops to do heart transplants (“its mostly plumbing…”) you know how badly off you are. Towards the end of his tenure with us, he arrived early one morning panting and breathing heavily. His … Continue reading →

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Carola Eisenberg: A Lucky Life

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Carola Eisenberg, M.D. (1917 -2021) Dr. Eisenberg, a psychiatrist, was born with a social conscience. She was descended from Jewish socialist refugees from Czarist Russia and was a native of Argentina, where by her account she was inspired to pursue psychiatry after visiting a mental hospital as a teenager with her father. One of our colleagues, the Mohs miscographic surgeon Dr. Jenny Stone, has warm memories from her student days at Harvard of Carola Eisenberg: “In September 1978, I was a nervous first year student at Harvard Medical School.  In the midst of a flurry of faculty-introductory speeches, one person stood out: Dr. Carola Eisenberg, our new dean of student … Continue reading →

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Sanctuaries

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    There is nowhere Black people can go to not be inside a carceral gaze or at risk of experiencing police brutality. …And we, in healthcare, have to [start] building that sanctuary for folks as their human right. Rhea Boyd In her recent New England Journal Perspective essay, “Without Sanctuary”1 S. Michelle Ogunwole suggests that our hospitals and offices should be sanctuaries for our patients.  She writes: In quiet moments, I often reflect on how our society decides who deserves punishment and who deserves redemption. I think about grace, and how Black people get so little. I think about trust, and how Black people get so little. I think about … Continue reading →

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Bernard Lown (1921 – 2021)

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Dr. Bernard Lown, the Harvard cardiologist who invented the first effective heart defibrillator and was one of a group of co-founders of an international organization that won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign against nuclear war, died on on February 16, 2021 at his home in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He was 99. If you are not familiar with Dr. Lown, the NY Times Obituary is a good place to begin. His book, “The Lost Art of Healing” (1996) was inspirational reading for me. Here are my notes if anyone wants to see them. Here are some excerpts from the Preface: Medicine’s profound crisis, I believe, is only partially … Continue reading →

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H. Jack Geiger M.D.

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A Doctor Who Fought Social Ills, Dies at 95 He used medicine to take on poverty, racism and the threat of nuclear destruction. I’ve heard about Jack Geiger for decades – but didn’t know what a picaresque life he led!  After reading his obit in the 12.29.20 NY Times, I can’t wait for the movie starring Harrison Ford to screen. Excerpts: NY Times Obit. Dr. H. Jack Geiger, who ran away to Harlem as a teenager and emerged a lifelong civil rights activist, helping to bring medical care and services to impoverished regions and to start two antiwar doctors groups that shared in Nobel Peace Prizes, died on Monday at … Continue reading →

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W.H. Auden on The Skin Microbiome

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A New Year Greeting The poet, W.H. Auden, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1925 with a scholarship to study Biology. This poem should interest physicians, especially dermatologists. Had Auden become a biologist, think what the world might have lost! Osler quotes Lowell: “We reward the discoverer of an anaesthetic for the body and make him a member of all the societies, but him who finds a nepenthe for the soul we elect into the small Academy of the Immortals.’” (from John Keats: The Apothecary Poet, in The Alabama Student.) This poem was published in Scientific American in 1969 On this day tradition allots         to taking … Continue reading →

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Polypharmacy: an Introduction

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We recently came across a great video to introduce this subject. Bohemian Polypharmacy on Youtube A good review article on this topic is: How polypharmacy has become a medical burden worldwide. “Taking a multitude of medicines, whether they are prescription drugs, OTC treatments, herbal or dietary supplements — known as polypharmacy — is not only a burden for patients, it can be dangerous. We need a way to mitigate the danger of unwanted drug interactions and improve drug adherence to essential medicines, and this is as true for the United States as it is in Europe. It is imperative that patients are empowered to make informed decisions about the medicines … Continue reading →

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Campaigns of Fear

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It’s Time to Scare People About Covid — We need a Campaign of Fear Our public messaging about the virus should explain the real costs — in graphic terms — of catching the virus. by Elisabeth RosenthalNY Times  Dec. 7, 2020 Link to Article. (If the link doesn’t work — here is the article.) I still remember exactly where I was sitting decades ago, during the short film shown in class: For a few painful minutes, we watched a woman talking mechanically, raspily through a hole in her throat, pausing occasionally to gasp for air. The public service message: This is what can happen if you smoke. I had nightmares … Continue reading →

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