Last week Antidote introduced you to Dr. Steven Balt, the rare physician to have the courage to open up about his personal experiences with the physician discipline system. The first part of our interview was posted last week. The last part is below.
During a San Diego afterschool club presentation for 11-13 year olds, a group of 82 students of predominantly of Filipino American descent were educated on the signs of problem gambling. Afterwards, students were asked if – based on what they had learned – they thought someone they knew may be in danger of being a problem or pathological gambler. More than 80 percent raised their hands.
"We would go to Atlantic City every holiday – even the Jewish holidays. We weren't even Jewish," exclaimed Dang.
At 18 years old, my mother took me to play bingo at a local American Indian reservation. It was a bare hall, lined with long rows of tables and filled with mostly middle aged women. My mother bought eight cards - 4 for her and 4 for me. The woman next to me had 32 cards enclosed in a perimeter of lucky trinkets. I remember thinking, "she's got a problem". The woman listened intently, then marked her cards quickly and with conviction. At several points, I lagged behind in marking my cards. My mom was no better. We were novices. The woman next to us looked annoyed.
When you find a doctor who you suspect of insurance fraud, tax violations or some other financial misdeed, it’s a good idea to check his neighbors, business partners and family members.
Medical training covers very little on how to confront dying and death with their patients and their families. Marketplace's Caitlan Carroll visits the San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine, where they are training physicians on how to tailor care around patients' last wishes.
My friend Christopher Farnsworth recently published a book called Blood Oath. It’s about a vampire who works for the president. After a reading he gave last week, I asked him, “Knowing that you are only one book into a three-book deal, why did you decide to put Frankenstein, werewolves, a vampire and zombies all in the first book?” He said, “It’s the Jack Kirby school of writing. If you have it, put it all in.”
During its six-month pilot project, the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Reporting on Health at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism quietly produced in-depth journalism with California newspapers. Now, the Center has gone public with a new website and high-profile hires, including editor-in-chief David Westphal.
