Most people don't know they even take place. Now, "Monday Mornings," a novel by Sanjay Gupta -- CNN's chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon at Atlanta's Emory University -- lifts the veil on these gatherings.

While driving one of his three daughters to school last week, Gupta, 42, talked to Salon about his bestselling first novel, how doctors can do better, and the controversial ethics of being both journalist and physician.

What made you decide to leap into fiction?

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Right now, Dr. Conrad Murray sits in jail because he couldn't say no to Michael Jackson when Propofol came up in conversation between them. But even doctors who aren't tempted by an enormous monthly retainer and access to one of the world’s biggest celebrities are challenged by the word "no."

American medicine is a business -- but a weird one.  In any other sector of our economy, businesses are determined to give their customers what they want, however they want it. But in medicine, the “have it your way” mind-set doesn’t always jive. First, physicians have a duty to avoid doing harm.  The choice of a drug or test based solely on a patient’s request can undermine that.  Second, as everybody knows, we spend a big slice of our GDP on healthcare. Since the person who has control over expensive tests and the prescription pad is your doctor, there's ever-increasing scrutiny to be responsible stewards of healthcare dollars.

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If you believe me, I’m guessing that this is an offer you can’t refuse. On the other hand, we know U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s answer to my question is "no." That’s because I really do have this drug. It’s called the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer. I administer it to teens (mostly girls, but increasingly boys) in my practice every day.

I won’t waste words refuting Bachmann’s ridiculous (and campaign-killing) claim that the HPV vaccine causes "mental retardation." But here are the facts: The American Cancer Society estimates that about 4,000 women die from cervical cancer in the United States each year. Approximately $4 billion is spent annually on these conditions. The HPV vaccine is virtually 100 percent effective in preventing infection by strains of the virus associated with 70 percent of cervical cancers. A second HPV vaccine is also highly effective, preventing more than 90 percent of infections. Researchers estimate that if widespread vaccination is achieved, cervical cancer could drop by as much as 77 percent. That’s as close to a cure for cancer as we’ve ever had.

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McDonald's recently drew criticism from child nutrition advocates for resurrecting the iconic Ronald McDonald character, but Boutelle's research reminds pediatricians that Ronald never really left. Twenty-seven children's hospitals across the U.S. have a McDonald's on site, and there are many more at centers worldwide.

At a time when more than one-third of American children are obese and type II diabetes is rampant, it's hard to imagine why children's hospitals -- especially some of the very best -- would put a McDonald's front and center. But there's a McDonald's at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which U.S. News recently ranked alongside Children's Hospital Boston as the No. 1 kids' center in the country. In an online review of the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles (ranked eighth by U.S. News), one parent observed that "McDonald's is the only 24-hour food source. (Odd, since their food puts people in the hospital.)"  When "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock learned about the McDonald's at the highly regarded Texas Children's Center (ranked fourth by U.S. News), he called it "utterly irresponsible" and "a flagrant violation of the doctor's pledge of "Primum non nocere" (First, do no harm.)

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A judge ultimately dismissed the case, stating that "the court does not find defamatory meaning, but rather a sometimes emotional discussion of the issues." But it's not the first time a physician filed a suit against a consumer for a bad Internet review -- and probably won't be the last. A physician's reputation is all he or she has, and a sour review on the Web can make us very anxious.

Online review sites, of course, are imperfect and open to manipulation. But we all head to Google nevertheless in search of information and advice, whether we're shopping for a book or a new physician. So how do you know whether the doctor you're seeing is any good? And how do I know how good a doctor I am?

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But, as a doctor, I was struck by a more subtle medical conundrum. Toward the beginning of the movie, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) injects his Alzheimer's-stricken father (John Lithgow) with the same drug he gave Caesar. In the following scene, Lithgow's character recovers the memories and mental capacity he lost to dementia. That particular plot point raises a question we as physicians often face: Should doctors treat their own family and friends?

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Real hypochondria, which today we believe is a form of extreme anxiety connected to depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, is serious, costly and debilitating. A brief perusal of hypochondria message boards will show you how terrifying the disorder really is. Driven by the frightening and unwavering conviction that every twinge, tingle and ache is a mortal threat, these patients can't stop calling 911, making doctor's appointments and demanding test upon test, drug upon drug. It adds up: Collectively, hypochondriacs cost our health system some $20 billion a year.

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"Enhanced Eddie" then acquires a stash of these pills and, in rapid succession, cleans himself up, learns Italian, wins back his ex-girlfriend and becomes a celebrity investment banker.

The film's "miracle" drug may seem far-fetched, but it's based in a medical reality: Taking certain medications, specifically those developed to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders, can boost cognitive performance in otherwise healthy people.

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Although less well-known, some of Smith's most critically acclaimed work has unfolded onstage, a medium for which she has written and performed a number of one-woman shows. In her latest work, "Let Me Down Easy," she portrays 20 characters ranging from Lance Armstrong to former Texas Gov. Ann Richards to a Buddhist monk to medical residents in New Orleans. The play, which she is currently touring around the nation, explores how individuals struggle to survive not only terminal illness but also our nation's flawed healthcare system.

Smith began mulling this piece over a decade ago, when she was invited to Yale Medical School as a visiting professor. There, she interviewed and then portrayed real patients, doctors and administrators as part of an educational lecture. Intrigued by the idea, she went on to interview more than 300 people in preparation for the current iteration of the project.

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As a pediatrician who, as it happens, does not perform circumcisions, I too have remained agnostic about the practice. I've treated countless baby boys, both circumcised and not, and I've never seen any severe complications resulting from the procedure. (As a rule, complication rates are very low, occurring in 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent of all cases.)

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A little private time is common in consultations with teens; it gives them the opportunity to be honest about various behaviors, including sexual activity, that they wouldn't discuss in front of their parents. CDC statistics show a third of girls in the U.S. are sexually active by age 15, so these talks can make the difference between a teenage girl staying healthy by practicing safe sex, and becoming a star on the next season of "16 and Pregnant."

The MTV show has generated a lot of controversy because of the way the mothers and mothers-to-be on the program behaved after they'd decided to have a child. But, for a pediatrician like me, the show raises a different question: Did these young women have the chance to talk privately with their doctors before MTV started shooting their second trimester?

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Publicly airing this friction opened Brown up to sharp criticism. "Drawing and quartering your coworkers in the Sunday New York Times might be run-of-the-mill for politicians. I'd like to see something better out of doctors and nurses," wrote one physician over at the Atlantic. But don't count me among her detractors. Brown used her story to advocate for civility in medicine. Mutual respect, she correctly argued, would improve teamwork and the care of patients. Her essay raised a question far more important than who was right or wrong: If both nurses and doctors want to make their patients better, why is there so much conflict and controversy between them? And how do we do a better job of working together? To help me answer these questions, I asked Theresa Brown herself.

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First, some readers wondered what, if anything, teen Internet use has to do with medicine. The most obvious way to answer that is to point to the recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending doctors address social media with their patients and families. But more than that, addressing "nontraditional medical risks" (child development, behaviors, emotional well-being) alongside "traditional" risk (infections or injuries) is a core value of modern pediatrics. Chronic illness could mean diabetes or asthma, but also things like school and conduct problems. We're now adding e-risks to our problem list.

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"Trust" is the latest film to stir our deep desire to protect children from the evil that lurks on the Web. Practically speaking, that may mean taking away teens' cell phones, sitting beside them as they use the computer, or buying filtering software. It's understandable that -- like television, movies and rock 'n' roll before it -- the Internet has become a lightning rod for parental anxiety. And as a pediatrician, I can assure you doctors have been pulled into this debate about "e-risks," as I call them: Internet pedophilia, sexting, cyberbullying and, most recently, "Facebook depression" (more on that later). Parents worry about how their teen's use of the Web is affecting their health. Do they need a prescription sleep aid, or is all that late-night gaming making it hard to sleep? Do they have ADHD, or do most kids IM 50 people while they're doing their homework? The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report in March on the risks posed to youth on the Internet and how doctors like me should address the issue.

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Who won? You can watch the videos for yourself here. But ultimately, it doesn't matter, because in the real world -- i.e., drugstore aisles across America -- the business of alternative and complementary medicine is booming. Studies show that 1 in 3 Americans have tried alternative therapies, generating close to $50 billion in sales for the industry. So let's zero in on a different question: Why is alternative medicine so popular in America?

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Contrast that public square with another one, half a world away. This one is in Manhattan. Between April 11 and 28, 2011, a jumbotron in Times Square is flashing the following announcement every hour:

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Dr, Cooper (Peter Facinelli) orders an X-ray, but that's when Nurse Jackie intervenes. "Let's get him a scan," she whispers.

Cooper balks. "No, an X-ray is OK."

But Jackie presses him. "He wants to see his brain," she says. "Show him his brain."

Cooper smiles. "Using my powers for good -- I like it," he says, ordering the boy a Computerized Tomography scan, better known as a CT scan. CT scans give doctors the uncanny ability to illuminate cancerous tumors, blockages in blood vessels that cause strokes, an inflamed appendix, and other sicknesses inside the body (though they’re not at all necessary to find plastic stuck in a sinus cavity). They’re X-rays on steroids.

The scene is satire, but it demonstrates how easy it is for doctors to run unnecessary tests on their patients. The scene also had uncanny timing. Just after the episode aired, a study came out showing just how often kids in emergency rooms get CT scans. The real-life answer, as suggested by "Nurse Jackie," is "a whole lot more than they need."

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Those of us who have been through a delivery, either as a parent or as a doctor, know scenes like these (or these) are gross caricatures. The goal of childbirth isn't to scream at the top of your lungs. Rather, it's to focus that energy down on the pelvis to push the baby out, instead of wasting it contorting your body and castigating your partner.

Despite this, a quick scan of maternal message boards shows there is no shortage of women with questions about whether all that screaming, cursing and writhing is normal.

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As inspiring as these examples and efforts to portray and fight cancer have been, none give us an understanding of why cancer matters. In my mind, none of them appreciate cancer -- not in a positive sense, but in a way that ingrains the significance and severity of just what patients, doctors and our entire society are up against. We need something far deeper than pink ribbons or TV shows can provide.

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"Gifts establish reciprocity!" yells Winston as Randall hustles off, promotional pens in hand.

Reciprocity. I get a drug-branded pen or trinket. In return, I feel obliged to let a drug rep into my office, drop off free samples, listen to a slick sales pitch as I hustle between patients and, ultimately, prescribe their drug.

My wife and I are both physicians, and we joke that we could decorate our whole house with junk collected over the years from drug companies. Pens and sticky notes; stuffed animals to put in our children's beds; coffee cups, tissue and soap dispensers, paperweights, posters, fridge magnets, mouse pads, clocks -- all branded with some drug company's logo. Giving out these freebies is just one tactic in the larger strategy of "drug detailing." Does it work? Absolutely.

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