Volume
55, Number 3Summer 2004
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INTERVIEW
SCMA President Heather Furnas, MD
“This past year, CMA looked at various incentives
for encouraging people to purchase health insurance or at least sign up
with Medi-Cal. They figured out that, despite all those incentives, people
would not get universal coverage unless it was individually mandated,
much like auto insurance is for automobiles.”
By Steve Osborn
FEATURE ARTICLES
Physician Citizens
If Not Now, Then When?
“Because [physicians] care what happens to
people, there is a direct connection between medicine and politics. We
have a passion not only to heal the individual, but also to heal the world.”
By Brad Drexler, MD
Reversing the Ripple Effect
“Our goal is to prevent gun violence among
young people by educating them about the sobering medical, legal, and
emotional consequences of gun possession and violence. We give kids the
information and skills they need to make life-and-death decisions about
dealing with the guns already in their midst.”
By Brian Schmidt, MD
One Physician’s Journey Into the Sunshine
“I believe that social and political injustices
are incompatible with the health of the earth’s entire ecosystem.
Huge and massively uncomfortable changes are under way, and it remains
to be seen whether humanity is up to the challenge of reversing the damage
our species has caused.”
By Laura Goldman, MA
DEPARTMENTS
Local Frontiers: The Autism Epidemic
“I am trained to provide primary care for
children, but I had no idea that my daughter’s eccentricities of
speech and behavior were red flags for autism. I associated the A word
with a brief paragraph in a med-school lecture describing people who made
strange noises and were self-injurious.”
By Sarah A. Seitz, MD
Local Frontiers: PACS—Bringing Radiology from the View Box to the Desktop
“Just as proud parents send pictures of their
new baby to far-flung family and friends via the Internet, so too can
the radiologist and referring physician share and view images and information
without relying on earth-bound messengers, common office hours, or geographic
proximity.”
By Mark Popovich, MD
Medical Arts: Keeping the Fire Alive
“My self-worth, my self-respect, and my own
life happiness are finally going to be a priority. After a lifetime of
dutiful decisions that have taken others into account before my needs,
I will now live a life of my own.”
By Stacey Marie Kerr, MD
Current Books: Charting a Path to Medical Safety
“Internal Bleeding … brings
consideration of medical safety issues into the public domain by carefully
balancing engaging—and often horrifying—patient stories with
a call for medical safety reform.”
By Stephen Meffert, MD
