Below, a guest-post by Dr. Clifton. Meador.

Many  HealthBeatt readers  know Meador as the author of a popular HealthBeat guest-post “The Art of Diagnosis,” drawn from his book True Medical Detective Stories  (“A Young Doctor and a Coal Miner’s Wife.”)

Long-term readers will recognize Meador both as one of the stars in  the film,, Money-Driven Medicine,  and as the author of well-known satirical writings on the excesses in our  medical system. They  include “The Art and Science of Nondisease (the New England Journal of Medicine, 1965) and  “The Last Well Person,” an essay he published as an “Occasional Note” in NEJM  in 1994. 

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Unheard Hearts – A Metaphor 

                                                      Clifton K. Meador, M.D

A few months ago, a young cardiologist told me that he rarely listens to hearts anymore. In a strange way, I was not surprised.

He went on to tell me that he gets all the information he needs from echocardiograms, EKGs, MRIs, and catherizations. In the ICU, he can even measure cardiac output within seconds. He told me that these devices tell him vastly more than listening to out-of-date sounds via a long rubber tube attached to his ear.

There was even an element of disdain. He said, “There is absolutely nothing that listening to hearts can tell me that I don’t already know from technology. I have no need to listen. So I don’t do it much anymore.”

I began to wonder Continue reading →