Talk about a confluence of events. In just 10 days, three major threats to medical communications came to a head. And for once, our side won or made significant progress on all three: CME, DTC and the continued use of prescribing information.

If healthcare communicators ever look for a patron saint, I nominate St. Sebastian, sentenced to have archers shoot arrows at him from all directions.

We all know that if you live on McDonald’s hamburgers for a month you’ll turn grossly obese, your “bad” cholesterol level will zoom and your liver will deteriorate.

In the classic 1967 movie, Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman earns the respect of his fellow chain-gang prisoners by refusing to stay down after being beaten to a pulp.

Just what do you think you’re doing? That maternal admonition might well be addressed by Mother Nature to the geneticists and biochemists whose research promises not just “to add a trait here or to subtract a defect here, but to alter radically our very being.”

When organized CME was in its infancy, we viewed it as the professional responsibility of a physician to keep up in those areas that would benefit the care of patients.

Sens. Frist and Clinton are both on record as supporting the push for computerizing medical record keeping.

Imagine (we all have bad dreams from time to time) that you’ve been appointed FDA Commissioner.

MM&M's 40th anniversary called to mind that one of my first articles for the magazine--not quite 40 years ago but close--was about the emergence of accredited CME and how it not only provided a new communications channel for the industry but was making a major contribution to better patient care.

He had a way with words. Anyone who knew him would tell you that.