14 Aphorisms

14 Aphorisms

• Health is not a commodity.
• Risk factors are not disease.
• Aging is not an illness.
• Quality is more than metrics.

• Doing all we can is not the same as doing what we should.
• Time is precious. We spend it on what we value.
• Doctors expect too much from data and not enough from conversation.
• To fix a problem is easy; to share another’s suffering is hard.
• The most common condition we treat is unhappiness.
• The greatest obstacle to our patients’ unhappiness is our own.
• Patients cannot see outside their pain; we cannot see in. Relationship is the bridge between.

• Nothing is more patient-centered than the process of change.
• Community is the locus of healing, not the hospital or clinic.
• The foundation of healing is conversation, friendship, and hope.

David Loxterkamp MD