The PMD Critical List: Doctors Wary of Prescribing Medical Marijuana

Though medical marijuana clinics are becoming commonplace in many states, physicians remain skeptical, in part due to the apparent ease of getting certified to take the drug. That story tops this week’s PMD Critical List. Also on the list, a look at the emotional interactions of patients and physicians, and how the National Football League is using aerial views to diagnose concussions.

• Mainstream Doctors Wary of Prescribing Medical Marijuana (Boston Globe)

Even as marijuana clinics are certifying patients for medical cannabis, doctors remain on the fence about the drug. Massachusetts’ medical society president “doesn’t like clinics where a patient goes in, gets their certification, and never sees that doctor again.”

• The Pope’s 10 Tips for Happiness (The Higher Learning)

With his remarkable trip to America now completed, the Pope has some tips on being a happier person. Weary doctors might be attentive. His number one piece of advice: “move forward and let others do the same.”

• When Patients Ignore Doctors' Emotions (The Atlantic)

Doctors as “empty vessels”? Those working to improve healthcare quality may “want to target patients’ attitudes toward their physicians, not just physicians’ attitudes toward patients.”

• An Aging Population, Without the Doctors to Match (The New York Times)

With “geriatric medicine being a low-paying field, even though it requires years of intensive specialization” and with the nation’s fastest-growing age group being those over 65, many worry about how the nation will be able to care for its older population in the coming decades.

• The NFL’s “Eye in the Sky” Doctors (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Interesting account on how physicians and trainers are now monitoring NFL game action from high above looking for a better perspective on player injuries, mostly concussions. “The clock is ticking and the coaches need to know if the player is coming back,” said one doctor.

• Are Doctors Screwing Up Diagnoses? (Forbes)

Some commentary about a new report, “Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare,” which finds that “most people will suffer at least one delayed or flat-out wrong medical diagnosis during their lifetime.” The solution is more patient involvement in medical care.

• 10 Key Thoughts on Physician Burnout (Becker’s Hospital Review)

It is perhaps the most pressing issue facing practicing doctors today—professional dissatisfaction. Some facts: 46% of physicians admit to burnout, the highest burnout rates are for emergency medicine doctors; 60% of doctors are considering early retirement due to burnout.

• Business of Healthcare Draining Doctors (Poughkeepsie Journal)

An interesting account of the sad condition of medical practice in upstate New York. “It's the business of healthcare that is fatiguing doctors, it's not the practice of medicine,” says one retiring physician.

• Dr. William E. Paul, AIDS Research Champion, RIP (New York Times)

The immunologist credited with focusing the federal government’s disparate AIDS research programs in the 1990s on developing innovative therapies that saved millions of lives has died. Called “an unheralded hero of the AIDS epidemic.”