Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

by Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD

The study found that, of the tens of thousands of patients with heart failure who were admitted during meeting days (when they were cared for by doctors who were not cardiologists), 17.5 percent died, and of the tens of thousands of heart-failure patients who were admitted during non-meeting days (when they were cared for by cardiologists), 24.8 percent died. Yes, cardiac patients died less when cardiologists did not get their hands on them. Cardiac mortality was not affected by patients being hospitalized during oncology, gastroenterology, or orthopedics conferences, when other specialists were away but cardiologists were present. Finally, the authors cleverly looked at gastrointestinal hemorrhage and hip fracture mortality and found these conditions were unaffected by hospitalization during the cardiology meetings.49 It really did seem that the cardiologists and their interventions were causing some cardiac patients to die at a higher rate. As a doctor, I find this extraordinarily demoralizing.