David Mokotoff, MD

Healthcare IT has great potential, but the lack of compatibility and conformity is making its role as a cost- and time-saving savior improbable.

Cardiologist David Mokotoff writes about why he has decided to retire; and why he won't miss the constant overseeing of his work by faceless bureaucrats, politicians, and third-party payers.

The president wants physicians to ask patients about their gun ownership. To me, this is not the best use of our time or the solution to avoid future tragedies.

As the Affordable Care Act moves forward, it is inevitable that consumer-driven healthcare is its goal. Here's why.

Pay-for-performance is an increasingly popular, yet largely unproven, concept for rewarding the providers of healthcare. They can be helpful …or harmful.

After contemplating a career that is seeing diminished autonomy, I've selected the date I'll retire from private practice medicine.

As a physician, undergoing the same procedures you order for patients can provide insight, empathy, and a lot of compassion.

As long as we view health insurance, rather than access to healthcare, as a right in this country, the problem will only get worse.

I believe I've kept up with the technological advances in medicine, and am convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks.

The goals for most federal government mandates are well intentioned, but the execution of them, and impact on physician offices, are counterproductive.

While a big proponent of the EHR, I am not an advocate of meaningless rules and criteria … to be 'incentivized' by Medicare.

July is a good time to remember that all of us in medicine need to help design true quality measures to strike a balance between learning and good patient care.

No matter the fate of healthcare reform, hospitals buying up private practices will continue, to the detriment of physicians and patients.

Healthy choices are the key to reducing obesity. But this isn't always an easy task - even for physicians and patients in the hospital.

Despite what friends and families think, physicians rarely have insider knowledge on the "best" physician and have trouble getting that information themselves.

With the mushrooming litigation climate, and the advent of the Internet, patients are now bombarded with copious information about their care, and in particular their medications.

I do agree that a more humane training schedule for medical students, interns, and residents was long overdue. But as the saying goes, “the devil is in the details."

It seems that every decision we make as doctors …is questioned or blocked by a bureaucrat, allegedly on behalf of the patient to keep medical care “cost-effective.”

This latest scheme to “reform” American healthcare won’t directly affect me. However, I fear for the effects on patients and future doctors.

Here are eight recommendations for every hospital CEO or administrator about what patients remember and appreciate about your facility and their stay.

In another shining example of the law of unintended consequences, what began as a well-meaning policy in healthcare has lost all sense of logic.

In the minefield of government regulations and compliance worries regarding gifts, we’ve stopped saying thank you this holiday season.

A trip to Europe provides perspective on the size of Americans and whether it is what’s in our food that’s making us obese, vs. how much of it we consume.

Nurses and doctors often dread taking care of a physician or his family, so I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Instead of being just an objective observer of illness, I have started to identify with my patients.

Cardiologist David Mokotoff feels at home whether he's prescribing a Mediterranean diet for his patients or snapper with orange brandy sauce for his family.

Cardiologist David Mokotoff remembers a patient who was demanding, abrasive, and obnoxious - and whose estate sued him for malpractice. The doctor’s biggest regret: That he hadn’t done better by old Dan.