Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

The Last Heart Attack

One trait of this blog is brevity. I provide links to videos that are very short. But I encourage you to find 41 minutes to watch "The Last Heart Attack," hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Why?

ACP Health TiPS on Pain

You can find innumerable books and articles intended to help patients talk about pain with their healthcare team. Yet pain continues to be under-reported by many patients. Here's a resource that may help: ACP Health TiPS on Pain.

If It's Not a "Battle," then what is it?

In an Oncology Times article, I share my distaste for battle imagery in discussions of cancer survivorship. I'm not battling or fighting cancer. So then, what do I call it?

Plan Beyond Cancer

An adage often cited in the business world applies to the pursuit of Healthy Survivorship: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Straw Man Concept

The Straw Man Concept is a useful tool in many settings. At times it may be just what you need to begin addressing a problem. What is a straw man?

My Bad?

My August 6th post shares a report on a new technology for breast cancer screening. I confess: I did not check out the story.

Stopping Time

In a recent column in Oncology Times, I discussed the difficulty of Stopping Time, the juncture of patient care when treatment options have run out.  Here's an excerpt from this article for clinicians:

Free CURE

One of the purposes for this blog is to bring attention to high-quality resources to help educate and empower Healthy Survivors.Today I'm shining the spotlight on CURE. Not only is this a superb magazine for cancer survivors and their caregivers, it is also free.

The Dangers of a Retrospectoscope

A retrospectoscope is a colloquialism for the process of looking at a situation after-the-fact, when it's easy to "predict" the outcome because the outcome already happened.

What does a retrospectoscope have to do with Healthy Survivorship?

Angry at Cancer

A patient is angry about having cancer. What now?

Mantra for Life

I've known a woman in her late 80s who always looked and acted decades younger. Sadly and unexpectedly this summer, she died after a very brief illness.

I'm mentioning this to share her philosophy of life, which was repeated at the memorials.

Toward an H.I.V. Cure

In a  NYTimes Op-Ed piece, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, summarizes important issues about the search for a cure in modern times.

Game-changer in Breast Cancer Detection

A recent article by Abigail Klein Leichman in Israel 21C discusses an exciting new technology in the detection of breast cancer. This "Israeli device now in clinical trials avoids radiation, guesswork, discomfort and other downsides that make mammography an imperfect screening tool."

Talking About Side Effects of Cancer Treatments

Effective communication is an essential element of Healthy Survivorship. So I felt honored when MD Anderson Cancer Center's Dr. Walter Baile invited me to write and narrate an audiovisual module titled TALKING ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS OF CANCER TREATMENTS

Hope or Letting Go - Part VI

In a crisis, when a patient is likely to die, should the patient's doctor encourage the family to say good-bye?

Hope or Letting Go - Part V

When patients suffer mortal wounds, clinicians have to decide whether or not to encourage these patients and their loved ones to say good-bye. What's a compassionate clinician to do?