Medical Axioms

Book Title: Medical Axioms

Book Author: Mark B. Reid

Publication Information: San Bernardino, CA, Primedia E-launch LLC, 2018, 262 pp., $12.99, paperback

In the current era of physician burnout, electronic health record dissatisfaction, and productivity scrutiny, it’s easy to feel detached from our original calling—to care for patients. Mindfulness training, yoga, and physician wellness are all the rage, but sometimes you just need a phrase, a quote or a quip to remind you of why you became a physician. Since 2010, Mark Reid, MD, an internal medicine hospitalist from Denver Health in Colorado, has made it his mission on Twitter to provide “medical axioms.” His first self-published book is a compilation of his tweets over an 8-year period, and provides the reader with whatever he or she is looking for. If you are not on Twitter and following @MedicalAxioms, then your best bet is to buy this book to see what he’s been up to for a decade or so.

The book is arranged not by pages, but by axiom, and walks the reader through all aspects of life as a physician. From advice to premedical students choosing medicine as a career, to helping patients through death and dying, the book covers the full range of doctoring. Many of the axioms harken back to the great physicians of yore (Osler, Mayo, Hippocrates), but have a modern twist or flare that relates to the youngest physicians. The reader has options for reading the book: plow through all 1,100 axioms (plus additional selected quotes from famous people), pick a section when you need it (like Doctors and Patients, or Medical Educators), or just open it and random and read a few. What you will gain as a reader is a bit of perspective—my life as a doctor really isn’t that bad, and there are patients, students, residents, family members and other doctors counting on me to do my job as best I can. The sections on malpractice, errors, and burnout are especially important for doctors facing these challenges (which we all do).

Not everyone will agree with every axiom, and I am certain that some are put there just to be provocative and make you think or question yourself. The only axiom I really had an issue with was “The only two people who should routinely share a hospital bed are a mom and a newborn,” because of the increasing number of deaths and near deaths of infants with their sleepy mothers in a hospital bed. A few examples of the axioms that I found most enjoyable include:

• “One of the mysteries of modern medicine is how badly some people want to be doctors and how badly some doctors want to be something else.”
• “What makes a doctor good is brains, judgement, and kindness. What makes a great one is willingness to see from the patient’s view.”
• “Daily challenge: Fulfill the promise of the personal statement you wrote on your medical school application.”
• “There is a magical hour when hospital graham crackers and peanut butter tastes like Thanksgiving dinner at your mama’s house.

The book is not without flaws, which is to be expected without the help of a professional editorial staff. There are a few typos, a few repeated axioms, and formatting issues here and there. But none of these detract from the value of sitting down with a few and remembering why you chose this profession. I recommend this book to all physicians practicing in these challenging and changing times. It will help keep you grounded. It will give you a few clever lines to use on family, patients, or students and make you look smart. And it will be there when you just need to step away from the daily grind for a few minutes.