In one study, old people assigned to a geriatrics team stayed independent for far longer, and were admitted to the hospital less.

We have medicalized aging, and that experiment is failing us.

Are doctors who make mistakes villains? No, because then we all are.

Writing lets you step back and think through a problem. Even the angriest rant forces the writer to achieve a degree of thoughtfulness.

We've created a multitrillion-dollar edifice for dispensing the medical equivalent of lottery tickets - and have only the rudiments of a system to prepare patients for the near certainty that those tickets will not win. Hope is not a plan, but hope is our plan.

Man is fallible, but maybe men are less so.

We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way norms and standards change.