Family Medicine

Will Maryland residents have to get used to not having access to the world-class physicians and hospitals that are part of what makes living here so special? This is the question that underpins the urgency of remedying our state's medical liability insurance crisis. The facts are clear: Liability insurance is exceedingly expensive for physicians, nurses, nursing homes and hospitals. Physicians are being forced to stop practicing medicine and consider moving to other states or retiring early, and the number of insurance companies willing to offer medical liability coverage is dwindling.

Dr. Hans Joachim Koetter, a physician who specialized in family medicine, died of complications from a stroke Monday at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 77. Dr. Koetter was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and was raised in Dresden. During World War II, he was conscripted into the German army and served as an infantryman on the Eastern front, where he was wounded. After the war, he attended the University of Frankfurt Medical School, where he earned his medical degree in 1951. He completed internships at the 97th U.S. Army Hospital and University Hospital, both in Frankfurt.

Rush, rush, rush. No one has enough time anymore. We hurry to work, zip through the supermarket and dash to the drugstore.That's where speed kills. Many dispensing errors occur because pharmacists are being pressured by customers and managers to work faster. But accuracy may suffer, and that can lead to disaster.We recently received a letter from a frustrated pharmacist: "Please encourage your readers to be more patient at the pharmacy. This is not fast food. We are dispensing powerful drugs instead of hamburgers.

Hot jobs: Want to go into a field where you're just about guaranteed a job? Try computer animation, says POV magazine, which lists "10 Career Fields To Get Into -- And 10 Career Fields To Dump" in its May issue. Others include on-line content producing, mutual fund managing, industrial environmental work, family medicine, management consulting, intellectual property law, the clergy, interactive advertising and physical therapy. Jobs to avoid: accountant, bank teller, bureaucrat, telephone operator, factory worker, real estate agent, bartender, college teacher, librarian and middle manager.

Dr. Edward Joseph Kowalewski, a physician who was chairman of the family medicine program and department at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, died of heart failure Tuesday at Anne Arundel County Medical Center. He was 75 and lived in Arnold.Dr. Kowalewski became convinced of the values of family medicine -- providing comprehensive medical services for an individual practically from cradle to grave -- while practicing medicine in Pennsylvania after World War II.In a family practice, emphasis is placed on treatment of all problems, from sniffles to management of long-term conditions, such as terminal cancer.

Brandon stares ahead, listless, his eyes tinged with pink. His family doctor has found swollen glands and, peeking inside the 2-year-old's ears, claims to see Simba.No response."You're too sick to care, aren't you, sweetie?" Dr. Alex Rocha asks the sad towhead. He turns to Brandon's mother, Dawn Goodman: "He's got tonsillitis," the doctor says.A few minutes later, Dr. Rocha is talking to an 80-year-old farmer about the arthritis in his leg and stops to examine his sandpaper hands."Look at these mitts," he tells Howard Leister, who recently painted 12,000 feet of white fence.

The music of the Washington Strings, a favorite at White House dinners, set the stage for the gala 80th birthday party for one of the world's best-known vintners, Robert Mondavi.Believe it or not, the celebration took place at the Baltimore National Aquarium, where Mr. Mondavi and his daughter, Marcie, joined members of the newly founded Maryland Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food for a delightful evening. Mondavi and his friend Julia Child are the founders of this international organization.

An article in yesterday's editions of The Sun on primary care doctors incorrectly described a $1,100 medical test, an echocardiogram.+ The Sun regrets the errors.Bill Welder knew AIDS up and down by the time he graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1991, and he could recognize any number of exotic cancers. He had only a dim idea, though, what chicken pox looked like, and a case of teen-age acne might stump him.These might have been inconsequential holes in a young doctor's medical education were he planning a career in immunology or oncology.