"We are a guidance system, not a book of knowledge," Dr. Lawrence Weed wrote in 1968.[1,2] Then, as now, medical information was expanding exponentially. Each of us physicians needs information sources for an accurate, complete differential diagnosis and for specific diseases. Join discussion...

I’ve blogged about passion before, and it got a lot of responses. Everybody talks about it; from the half-dead old professor who gives the introductory lecture in first year and then disappears back into his coffin until next year, to the tough-love-doling quasi-military doctor who first takes charge of you when you start work at the hospital. Every book on medicine contains at least a chapter on it; old doctors swear you’ll never make it through med school if you’re just in it for the mone Join discussion...

Doctors should know that when meeting a new patient for the first time there is no second chance to make a good first impression, researchers said on Monday. Join discussion...