Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less.

When the Veterans Affairs Department implemented a program to provide home-based health care to veterans with multiple chronic conditions - many of the system's most expensive patients to treat - they received astounding results.

We are spending most of our time in American health care fixing the mistakes that either we in the profession are causing or our patients are without recognizing it causing to themselves.

We should be concerned not only about the health of individual patients but also the health of our entire society.

People spending more of their own money on routine health care would make the system more competitive and transparent and restore the confidence between the patients and the doctors without government rationing.

I remember once I read a book on mental illness and there was a nurse that had gotten sick. Do you know what she died from? From worrying about the mental patients not being able to get their food. She became a mental patient.

I am about to get involved with the biggest cancer hospital in Norway. They are building a fitness center to work with patients. I will be a consultant.

I have seen doctors in good faith leave patients on steroids for years thinking they are doing right. A friend of mine was on steroids for so long she has severe osteoporosis.

The mind controls so much of the body. We are much more than flesh and blood we are complex systems. Patients do better when they have faith that they're going to do better. That's why I always tell my patients and their families not to neglect their prayers. There's nobody I don't say that to.

Twenty million more have Chronic Kidney Disease where patients experience a gradual deterioration of kidney function the end result of which is kidney failure.

African Americans make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population but comprise 32 percent of patients treated for kidney failure giving them a kidney failure rate that is 4.2 times greater than that of white Americans.

I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

The dilemma of modern medicine and the underlying central flaw in medical education and most of all in the training of interns is the irresistible drive to do something anything. It is expected by patients and too often agreed to by their doctors in the face of ignorance.

I weighed 193 pounds and had three chins. I couldn't get up before 9 a.m. and never saw patients before 10. I decided to go on a diet.

I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.

Not much shocked me. You know I worked in a home for Alzheimer's patients and my dad used to be really into murders and stuff so I saw dead bodies. It desensitised me to a lot of things.

A smartphone links patients' bodies and doctors' computers which in turn are connected to the Internet which in turn is connected to any smartphone anywhere. The new devices could put the management of an individual's internal organs in the hands of every hacker online scammer and digital vandal on Earth.

Smartphones can relay patients' data to hospital computers in a continuous stream. Doctors can alter treatment regimens remotely instead of making patients come in for a visit.

Nurses serve their patients in the most important capacities. We know that they serve as our first lines of communication when something goes wrong or when we are concerned about health.