Emerging...The Richard of the Future

So, having been accepted into the prestigious, private, but eminently affordable (relatively of course) medical school of my choice, I decided to tap into medical culture via several of Times' people of the year: medical bloggers. Luckily, bloggers participate in the same sort of year-end mutually masturbatory award-granting as everyone else, and I was able to find several succint lists from which to cull about 20 blogs to add to my beloved Google Reader (fap fap fap Google Reader fap *splurt*), along with a few foodie blogs.

Anyway, amongst the varied practicing physician blogs (most notably critical care), was the ever-present fear of litigation. Obviously this didn't create posts with craven subjects lines like, oh, "I'm Afraid of Litigation," but the sentiment was there, generally expressed as anger. Now, I don't know just how bad of a doctor I'll be, but I think we can all reasonably assume doctoring on the defensive won't help. I recognize the relative infancy of my understanding of the healthcare system, but I am inclined to agree with this guy.

From relatively few panel discussions with my peers (read: drunken rambling ranting in the courtyard), I have gleaned that people don't like doctors. Fine. I think doctors end up not really liking people much more quickly than their application essays would let on. But, with most of my friends reaching ages where they'll need to avail themselves of the American healthcare system (with liver trouble and elevated cholesterol levels), I feel a responsibility to renew/reinforce our readers' understanding of what the holy hell is going on with physicians and, well, fucking me. So, consider this another one of those ellipsis-preceding posts promising more useful future content. With no school, my excuse pool is essentially empty.

EDIT: Holy shit let's do it.