Alan Berkenwald, MD

Responding to the public's demand to seek redress for injuries, real or imagined, at the hands of physicians, the established forces of organized medicine have turned inward in an attempt to better police their members. Out of these good intentions came the QA departments, to be found now in every hospital, HMO, and clinic. Their mandate is to weigh accusations, often brought secretly; investigate, often done selectively; deliberate, often done behind closed doors; and sentence, often without chance of appeal.

An idiosyncratic romp through the history of organized medicine

In the final installment of this series of blog posts, "the Regulars" receive help from an unexpected taxonomic ally.

The second in a series on alternative medicine, this installment looks at the first organized attempt at natural medicine -- and its many spin-offs.

Dr. Berkenwald begins a three-part series on alternative and

Being opioid-dependent means dealing with attractions and cravings that never go away--and seeking help for things that have gone away.

Drugs, such as were available to mid 19th-century regular physicians, where usually mineral in origin. Primarily because of their speed of onset and severity of action, they were initially favored over botanical derivatives for they quickly authenticated the power of a physician's intervention.

A court of criminal inquiry against the established religion first appeared in France in the 13th century and attained its full glory in 1484, under Queen Isabella of Spain, with the founding of the Supreme General Inquisition. A closer look at the inner workings of the Quality Assurance Committees affirms that history does, in fact, repeat itself.

I became a blogger 4 months ago, a gig that I find fascinating and refreshing. A place for me to vent, pontificate, and generally hold forth with a jaundiced view of my profession and the industrial Goliaths that support it.

In 1904, the Scottish author Sir James Matthew Barrie sent Peter Pan off to Never-Never Land to escape growing up and to enjoy many-many adventures. As children, we all hoped it really existed. In truth, many of us fantasized, one day, to make the trip ourselves. Well, good news for physicians - that day has arrived!

As I wrote in a previous blog post, the approaching fire storm over the patient-centered medical home model reminds me of the destructive powers seen before in HMOs.

I have been following with interest all the discussions about the new Medical Home (aka, the Patient Centered Medical Home) concept. This is our silver bullet that will improve patient access, raise quality levels, increase overall satisfaction and save billions of healthcare dollars - all at the same time!