Doctors often struggle to show compassion while dealing with patients
Published: May 17, 2011
by Dr. Manoj Jain

I was standing at my patient's bedside. Mike Venata was having chills with a temperature of 103. Sweat covered his balding scalp like dew, then coalesced and rolled down past his staring eyes. 

Just 20 minutes earlier, a specialist had informed him that he had metastatic pancreatic cancer and could expect to live less than six months. He was alone. I’d seen him once before; as an infectious-disease specialist, I’d been called in because his fever might be due to an underlying infection.

I wondered: How do I show him compassion? Read More 

New MyPlate guidelines only first step to better diet
Published: June 13, 2011 
by Dr. Manoj Jain

My patient's hospital breakfast plate lay inches away from his freshly cracked and wired sternum, underneath which his clotted arteries were bypassed. On one side of the plate lay brown slices of bacon; on the other side was a heap of yellow scrambled eggs, along with a muffin. Read More

Flood water not likely to produce epidemics
Published: May 16, 2011 
by Dr. Manoj Jain

Last Monday evening, our family headed out to see the "flood of the century," as the mighty Mississippi crested in Memphis.

From afar, trunk-less treetops appeared as shrubs and tall telephone posts had become stumps. And, up-close, debris of bottles, boxes and tires rested at the water's edge, as if the local roads were a dumping ground. Read More