Critical Decisions

The ins and outs of our medical decisions

Peter A. Ubel M.D.

6 Tips for Determining If a Doc-in-the-Box Is Right for You

Consumers should keep these 6 tips in mind so they make better use of such clinics.

The Key to Patient Empowerment

If you want clinicians in your organization to give decision aids to their patients, take the time to train clinicians how and why to use them.

Getting Good Advice From Your Physician

Patients should make sure physicians understand their goals well enough to help them make the right choices.

Sexual Harassment's Silent, Terrible Toll in Medical School

Organizational leaders, including medical school chiefs, chairs and deans, need to make it easier for their employees to report instances of sexual harassment without fearing for

Do You Overeat? You Might Want to Blame Childhood Stress

Eating only when you are hungry: That’s a real luxury.

How to Stop Over-Eating: Lessons From Brain Science

Brain science hints at several ways to reduce the pattern of food craving and consumption.

Would Prince Be Alive Today If He'd Had a Different Doctor?

Physicians need better training on how to manage chronic pain and on how to help patients wean themselves from narcotics when they run the risk of being harmed by these medications

Uninformed, but Understandable Decisions

Women choosing to have bilateral mastectomies can teach us about the challenges of making good medical decisions.

A Link Between Pharma Consulting and Drug Prescribing

When making conclusions about controversial topics like physician/pharmaceutical relationships, we need to separate speculation from proof.

The Wrong Way to React When Terminally Ill Patients Cry

The question remains whether the medical profession will take doctor-patient communication skills seriously enough to emphasize them in training and licensure.

How to Make People Think Robots and Corpses Have Feelings

As much as we ought to disentangle our moral and factual judgments, that is not always easy.

The Dangers of Uninformed Belief

Russell Wilson’s pronouncements not only risk convincing his fans to waste money, but could cause some to delay necessary medical care, figuring those concussion symptoms will resolve with a gulp or two of miracle water.

Has Mammography Created an Epidemic of Pseudo-Survivorship?

Has overuse of mammography created a false epidemic of breast cancer “survivorship”?

The Harms of Believing in Exercise

Pretty obvious lesson here, but I will state it anyway. If you want to avoid becoming obese, eat well and exercise. Perhaps less obviously, try to convince yourself that exercise is not the key to fitting into that five-year-old pair of Levi’s.

Calling Obesity a Disease Dooms Dieters

The better we succeed in convincing people that obesity is a disease, the less motivated obese people will be to fight back against these social and physiologic forces.

Are Patients Harmed When Doctors Explain Things too Simply?

Sometimes fast-thinking is not so good. Which raises an interesting question for physicians trying to help patients navigate important medical decisions: Will they harm patients by explaining things so simply that patients make fast, erroneous choices?

The Lost Art of Not Ordering a CAT Scan

We can’t leave well-enough alone. What we know to be true – “this patient does not have an acute neurological problem” – isn’t fully true until we have imaged the heck out of patients and can see – fully and tangibly see – that their brains look just as normal as we knew them to be.