Winter 2002
ARTICLES Diesel gas, rice, and medical errors After mistakenly putting diesel gas in her car, the author realizes how very capable she is of making mistakes. She explores medical errors in the context of her response to this event. The article addresses the vital task of minimizing errors due to poor organization or lack of standardized methods. However, in spite of these crucial improvements, human error persists. The article addresses the following points: how individuals or institutions respond to errors; in whom physicians confide when they occur; how physicians reconcile their inadequacies; why medical institutions are slow to implement procedural changes to reduce errors; the relationship between medical errors and fear of lawsuits; and when patients are informed of medical errors. The author addresses these questions, and discusses her personal reconciliation with the inevitability of errors.
Sexual science in ancient Greece This article examines sexual theories current in ancient Greece, in particular the belief that intercourse is dangerous to men and requires medical regulation. An important feature of that belief is its correlation with a bias that considered women inferior to men. The focus or this article will be the manner in which medical writers supported that bias, promulgating theories consistent with cultural prejudice and lending it the weight of "scientific" opinion. The discussion relies heavily on the Hippocratic treatises, the chief source of medical opinion in ancient times. The treatises, compelling in their own right as expressions of Greek physiology and therapeutics, are also worth examining because they speak to the larger context of medical practice in antiquity. They pertain to a period when would-be medical scientists were just beginning to express themselves in the accents of "objective" authority and are significant therefore of the interplay of culture and science.
The reluctant acceptance of new ideas in medicine
Reflections on the lost art of caring
PATIENTS-OUR TEACHERS Confessions
LEADERS IN AMERICAN MEDICINE David C. Sabiston, Jr., M.D. Memories of David C. Sabiston, Jr., M.D.
PERSPECTIVES The wearing of the green
POETRY Playing the Absent Voice Box The Ferns The Poets on Parnassus Poetry Competition
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