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If you have watched or read the news over the past few days, you were probably ‘exposed’ to the story about the Andrew Speaker, the man from Atlanta with a rare form of TB. From what I have read so far, he was faced with a frightening medical diagnosis at a very inconvenient time in his life – right before he was leaving for his honeymoon. And then while in Europe, he was hit with the news that not only did he have TB, but it was also a rare form. I expect we will hear a lot more about who said what in this situation once all of the facts are in.

If you have recently been diagnosed with a medical condition, you have probably been asked this question over and over: How are you feeling?

The January 8, 2008 issue of the New York Times included an article, “For Cancer Patients, Empathy Goes A Long Way.” I’m all for oncology developing a more caring and psychologically sensitive method of delivering devastating news. But I think we’re missing a major point. That is, hospitals need to be more responsible for having the proper staff available for dealing with serious diagnosis.