Coverage of cancer is often about numbers: incidence figures, risk ratios, five-year survival percentages, mortality rates. All those numbers are, of course, important. But so, too, is every individual story that underlies the numbers. Here is one such story.
"Patient Teachers" Turning medical students into doctors is a job that calls for scientific acumen, medical expertise, and lots of patience. And it calls for patients, too. Many students say that the most powerful lessons they learn—especially those about the importance of the human touch—are insights that they glean from patients. Here are several such sagas.
How many doctors does the U.S. need? Many more, say some policy-makers, to address access problems and population trends. Not so, says a DMS researcher, who argues that churning out more doctors won't fix the problems and may make them worse. He and others call instead for a more rational payment system and better-organized planning to rectify current imbalances in the physician supply.