Sentences to Ponder
One-third of the nation’s physicians are over 65.
Smiles in fact are only the most visible part of an intimate melding between two minds.
For the last 8,000 years, the wine grape has had very little sex.
Chess experts use more of the brain’s right hemisphere.
The crops that the amoebas farm are the bacteria that they prefer to eat.
In Navajo culture, talking about death is thought to bring it about, so it is not discussed.
Pity the poor wine grape.
Also, the one-third of over 65 physicians are telling young people not to enter the profession. The future looks grim.
Re: the wine grape. Once we perfect cloning, women will have very little (reproductive) need of men.
If one-third of physicians are over 65, that suggests the physician shortage will become severe sooner than most health policy analysts assume. Most doctors cannot fathom the idea of retirement because caring for patients is such an enormous part of their identity. But they can easily scale back the number of patients they see if reimbursements fall too low. We could essentially lose anywhere from one-tenth to one-third of our physician supply in the next few years merely by aging doctors cutting back on their caseloads.
Good to learn that the amoeba’s are thinking clearly. It would be too bad if they were raising crops they didn’t like to eat.
The Navajo sound like they have a “healthy” grip on their denial.
I would bet at least some of their cultural practices (like not touching the dead) had a benefit long ago. But, I bet in the modern world, it is really oppressive.
John – Love your blog. There’s a typo in your first headline here, however. According to the article cited, it’s one-fifth of docs who are 65 or older, not one-third.
We should not be too complacent, however. One-third of docs ARE 55 or older, and many of those are looking to leave the profession or retire as a result of the dysfunctional climate in healthcare…