The practice of medicine today is so different from the time of Hippocrates, the father of medicine. The doctor-patient relationship is no longer as intimate as it used to be. There are now so many participants in this relationship and it becomes very difficult to maintain the same kind of connection that is so essential in developing it into a harmonious and mutually enriching experience.
Life is short may sound like a cliché but nothing can be truer than this. However, we rarely heed this call and often we only come to grips with this reality when the end is already imminent. Making our lives meaningful should be our moment to moment goal.
Doctor Denky is a Cancer Doctor/Oncologist who wants to bring the heart and sanity back into the insane and often cold-hearted practice of modern medicine. By sharing my thoughts, experiences and insights, I hope to empower people to choose for themselves based on their own values, what they choose to believe as true for them and not to be whisked off into choices that are overstated and excessive simply because that is what the community- that is, the society as a whole, our family and friends, the media, the government and the medical community- is dictating.
I am an advocate of patient empowerment and informed decision making. Gone are the days when the doctor makes all the decisions. Caring for patients is a shared responsibility between physician and patient, not to mention the HMO. The patient IS and MUST be the captain of the ship. The doctor must only guide, make suggestions and opinions but the patient should decide including the level of involvement that he wants in the process. All options must be laid down and patient’s choice must always be respected.
Come and journey with me in this wonderful experience which is called Life.
Let us live like we’re dying,
Doctor Denky
