New stuff I’m learning about living dying what matters most - Thu, Dec 5 2019

Author Affiliations Article Information Arc of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio JAMA. 2019;322(21):2077-2078. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.18730 In the spring of his 17th year, our child Matthew—born with Down…

Jeff Cohn 'What makes a good, high-quality doctor? The answer—for patients and families—is intuitively, glaringly obvious: Who can make my loved one better? ...The value of Matthew living his best life has not...been captured by any quality metric.'

Using a blood sample to diagnose a budding cancer in a person with no symptoms is a Holy Grail of oncology. So much so that a leading company in the field chose the name Grail. With a mission “to detect cancer early, when it can be…

Jeff Cohn Some utility in advanced cancer- the hope is it'll have a place in screening- but a long way from that being a possibility

When Sophath Chum was 15, his mother suffered a stroke. His father decided to put her in a nursing home in West Chester. But during follow-up visits, Chum noticed bruises on his mother's body. So three years ago, when his father began needing more…

Jeff Cohn Caregiving can be a challenge at any age- when you are just getting your (adult) life started, assuming this role can make you feel like you're putting your own life on hold, or even sacrificing it all together...

We gathered on a vast west-facing hillside, as the October sun sank over Tomales Bay. Just when we thought nature's awesome show was over, a giant harvest moon began to rise over the eastern horizon. Many oohs, ahhs, and other vocal bursts of…

Jeff Cohn Connection, gratitude, empathy, self-compassion, and meaning/purpose; a good prescription for all of us, I'd say

Facing troubling episodes of anxiety and depression, a woman in her late 80s recently called my office. After checking to make sure we accept Medicare, she was relieved to get an appointment within the week. She was evaluated and we developed a…

Jeff Cohn Medicare Advantage plans have benefits and downsides too- this describes some of both

Among the warriors for civility — a.k.a. kindness — is Jamil Zaki, 39, a Stanford University psychology professor whose lifework is focused on helping us become our better selves. For the past three years, he has been developing the…

Jeff Cohn For me, learning about positive deviance and then using that to discover solutions to serious problems made me a kinder person, I think- it's about having a hopeful, positive attitude rather than seeing what's wrong...