Next month my schedule will change. I will henceforth be off on Fridays with my work week truncated to Monday through Thursday. I am excited to be enjoying a long weekend every weekend. And while the schedule change is relatively minor, this event does feel like an important career moment for me. It is the first step on a journey that will ultimately lead beyond my professional career. It is this recognition that makes this modest schedule modification more significant than one would think it deserves. As some readers know, my current employed position has been a dream job for me. Prior to this, I was in a small private practice, which I loved, but was much more challenging professionally and personally. My partner and I ran the business. Working nights, weekends and holidays were routine for decades. On an on-call night, if I slept through until morning, I felt as if I had won the lottery. And w...
Cologuard is a sophisticated stool test that checks for microscopic blood and altered DNA which can signal the presence of colon cancer or precancerous polyps. Some patients are attracted to this non-invasive option rather than to traditional colonoscopy experience which includes the ever popular cathartic cocktail. This test was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014. The test was initially quite popular as patients and physicians were enthusiastic about this new colon cancer screening option. Often in medicine, what’s new becomes popular but initial enthusiasm tends to ebb over time. (With time, the initial safety and efficacy reports for medicines and diagnostic tests may not be sustained. This is why post-marketing surveillance after initial approval is so critical.) Patients were advised early on, as they are now, that a positive Cologuard test meant that a follow up colonoscopy was mandatory. Certainly, when I or...