What Remains After a Patient Dies posted on 2026-02-07
I’ve written before on Colt’s Corner about resilience in medicine, mostly in the context of endurance, burnout, and recovery. Recently however, I found myself returning to the question from a different direction, less as a skill to be cultivated and more as an ethical stance based on human connection. After a recent lecture, several nurses [Read More]
History of Pulmonary Medicine: From Antiquity to AI posted on 2026-02-02
The history of pulmonary medicine is replete with famous names and milestone events that changed the face of medical science over centuries. From early empirical observations in ancient civilizations to Egyptian texts describing herbal treatments and surgical interventions, it is clear that humanity has suffered from lung disease since the days when Homo sapiens and its predecessors [Read More]
A New Home for My Writing posted on 2026-01-30
I’m grateful you have been reading my work here, and I’m honored that so many of you around the world have viewed or downloaded educational materials from bronchoscopy.org in support of our shared educational mission. I will continue to add to this website, and to post on Colt’s Corner. For some time now, however, I’ve been thinking about [Read More]
Communication in Health Care: Patients and Providers posted on 2026-01-24
Communication in health care relies on a foundation of trust and psychological safety amid unexamined assumptions, non-dits (which is French for things left unsaid), potentially mismatched expectations, asymmetries of knowledge and power, vulnerability, unspoken emotional defenses, and differences in understanding or health care literacy. Perhaps this is why effective communication requires more than clarity of language. It [Read More]
Maleficence in Healthcare posted on 2026-01-20
Maleficence in healthcare refers to any intentional and unintentional harm caused by healthcare providers or health systems. It is usually discussed in contrast to nonmaleficence, the avoidance of causing harm, one of the pillars of the Four Principles approach to medical ethics proposed by Beauchamp and Childress in the 1970s. Intentional maleficence manifests as deliberate actions that [Read More]