Practicing and Life
Member CategorY
Winner
2014 Richard Spear, MD,
Memorial Essay Contest
Hello My Name Is…
David A. Lipski, MD
T
his friendly phrase greets us on name
tags, and is the title of a popular song.
Once self-explanatory, the tag “Hello
My Name is…Physician” may now be blurry
if not antiquated. With good reason we wear
other name badges. Some bear endearing
titles that need to be earned. Others display
unflattering monikers that can be the product
of perceived moral or professional failure.
Sometimes the names are apt, and at other times they are not. Let
me share a few of the names I have displayed. Maybe you have been
called similar names. Then you can tell me whether we ever met.
Beggar. Insurance carriers rightly have criteria defining medical
necessity for tests, medicines and procedures. But at times our system
requires us to plead our patient’s case to biased practitioners acting
on behalf of insurance carriers. Who among us has not navigated
automated telephone menus, and then held for the next available
agent for the privilege of groveling to a conflicted nurse or physician for financial authorization for indicated treatment? - all for the
benefit of patients who paid premiums so the carrier would take
care of them when they were sick, by the way.
Confidant. Patients courageously share astonishing secrets with
physicians. Shameful habits, embarrassing fears, un-confessed indiscretions, and longings to die are not discussed in polite company
with strangers. Sometimes learning secrets changes management,
but not always. Some seem to be offered as confessions, as if we
are something more than imperfect humans with our own secrets.
Medical school curriculum does not include lectures on human
courage, but we witness it every day.
Coveter. This cold, prickly appellation is applied less frequently
than in the past. Less often we notice jet-setting, expensive cars, and
midweek golf outings at posh country clubs among our physician
brethren. The public is now more aware of the formidable commit20
LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
ment required to practice medicine d \