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