pediatric housecalls Robert R. Jarrett M.D. M.B.A. FAAP

Hello, and welcome to Pediatric House Calls. I am…
A Physician board certified in Pediatric medicine with Clinical experience including caring for infants, children and teens – well these days mostly children and teens up to twenty-one;
An Administrator experienced in top medical management for several national health insurance companies;
An Author of health care manuals, newspaper columns and even children's stories;
A Business Medical Consultant for drug companies, insurance companies and physician practices;
A Veteran of the US Navy in the Vietnam era;
And…
I make House-Calls.

10 Medical Breakthroughs Unaccepted At First – Part Two

There are many barriers to accepting new knowledge

In part one I already confessed to being in a profession full of egos which, like it or not, sometimes get in the way of rational consideration of things new or which are going against long used practices.

And I even asserted that pediatricians don’t have as much trouble with that as other specialists; proposing, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that it was because we were all used to dealing with adolescents whose very body language conveys that every adult around them “just doesn’t have a clue.”
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Joseph Kirsner: Colon Cancer, IBS, Educator, Doctor

Joseph B Kirsner, "GI Joe," Colon Cancer, IBS, Decagenarian, Educator, Dr. to kings

It’s one thing to live 102 years and witness two generations of medical advancements and still quite another to be the one who made many of those advances!

Further, it’s even more unusual when the Decagenarian set out to do nothing but “be a good doctor” yet ended up with over 750 articles, 12 books and, get this, TWO lifetime achievement awards—why not he saw almost two lifetimes come and go.
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10 Medical Breakthroughs Unaccepted At First – Part One

There are many barriers to accepting new knowledge

Unfortunately, I’m in a profession where egos flair at the drop of a hat either through overwhelming skepticism, inordinate caution, debilitating fear of being wrong or as yet some unknown neurological or psychiatric condition.

I wish I was smart enough to write a definitive article on that, it would do the world a favor.

But I’m not, so this is not about that; it’s about the unfortunate result of all that—the often adolescent refusal to accept new knowledge when it is presented.
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Medical Breakthroughs, Unaccepted, Rejected and Attacked (at first)

unaccepted discoveries at first

I’m sorry to say that my profession is no different than others when it comes to EGO! At least it is now.

As pathetic as it sounds, a person’s tolerance or consideration of new information (even the true kind) hangs upon: where or even who it is coming from, how far it departs from what you already think you know, and perhaps even more importantly how the change will effect the person’s ego or pocketbook.

4 Posts in "Unaccepted Breakthroughs" Series

  • Major Medical Breakthroughs, unaccepted: Intro/Index – 22 Jul 2017
    Human nature as it is, doctors not excepted, change is fought against tooth and nail if it at all offends either ego or pocketbook. This is a bit of history lesson on a few of our hard-won breakthroughs where not only the idea, but the discoverers were unaccepted, rejected and even attacked for their discoveries.

  • Part One - Handwashing, Incubators, Angioplasty, Cancer, Ulcers – 23 Jul 2017
    Medical Breakthroughs Initially Ridiculed, Rejected or Persecuted. Yes, the doctor who suggested that other doctors wash their hands actually lost his life! There are many others: handwashing, incubators, angioplasty, cancer, ulcers, brain injury…

  • Part Two - Germs, proteins, heredity and immunotherapy – 31 Jul 2017
    As if part one of this series wasn't enough—there are more! Incredibly, this was written long before COVID-19, mask mandates or BLM reinforcing the mantra "progress has no greater enemy than doctors (or politicians) with ‘vested interests masquerading as moral principles."

  • Part Three - rational scepticism, evil intent and concussions – 8 Aug 2017
    Rational skepticism in one thing; but, deliberate and evil intent is quite the "bad brother from the dark side." Rejecting a reasonable and hard-won piece of medicine purely for financial and cover-your-a$$ reasons; well, I'm glad that Roger Godell and his NFL got caught with their dairy-aire's hanging out in public.


Brain injury from professional sports has a bleed-off in children’s sports as well. You can be better informed on that aspect in these posts about children’s concussions.

Head Lice and Tea Tree Oil

Head Lice - alive, really, really closeup

Let’s talk head lice for a moment. When I trained it wasn’t too difficult to diagnose or treat. THEN things began to change and the darn things started to become resistant to the medications we used to do them in—that, and the fact that there was found some degree of neurotoxicity which made us all nervous and VERY careful.
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Rotating Brain WA Animation

[A planned short time away from the computer was extended explaining the large hiatus between posts.]
There are tons of medical related graphics on “the web” but few that are both well done and anatomically correct. Here are a couple which you might find useful in either understanding your own issues OR explaining something to someone.

See the video…

A Doctor At A Patients Funeral

This is perhaps the most odd post I’ve written for this site in many years. It’s been on the possibles list for a year or so while I tried to figure out how to present it, and I’ve had difficulty: A doctor going to a patient’s funeral.

I never respond with a comment on someone’s blog; but, when I read an article by another physician about going to a patient’s funeral it hit me so strong that I simply had to. Then the more I thought about it, I felt that both his article and my comment should find a place on my site as well.

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