Busy physicians seldom pause long enough to feel the weight or the wisdom of the year behind them.
We know the end of the year is approaching not because we’ve reflected, but because holiday coverage discussions have begun. Someone needs to work Thanksgiving. Someone has to take Christmas. Someone will miss the department party again.
You look at the schedule and realize: This year, it’s you.
And in that moment, something inside you …
As a pediatric gastroenterologist with more than 10 years of face-to-face clinical experience, I can recall countless stories of parents who felt lost at sea, adrift between vague diagnoses, inconclusive tests, and unanswered questions. Medicine has its boundaries; doctors can only work within what is known. And while artificial intelligence now helps us digest vast amounts of medical data, nothing can replace the curiosity and determination of parents who take …
The story of gastroenterology in 2025 is no longer about productivity or reimbursement; it’s about manpower. Hospitals and practices across the U.S. are struggling to recruit, retain, or even temporarily staff the specialists who manage digestive diseases, perform colon cancer screening, and handle emergency procedures like ERCP. What we’re facing isn’t simply a staffing issue; it’s a structural shortage decades in the making.
The shrinking pipeline of gastroenterologists
In the mid-1990s, roughly …
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
When I lost meaning in and for my life while questioning my career path as a surgical resident, I lost motivation to eat and isolated in guilt and shame. Looking back, I had given up the very things that I now realize give life meaning in the pursuit of my career: relationships (including friendship and community …
My journey to medicine was a little bit different than most. Prior to beginning my academic career, I had the fortune of being a second-round NHL draft pick and enjoyed a career as a professional hockey player.
When I went through my CaRMS interviews, I was often asked about my previous experience and how that would help me in residency. I would give the typical answer: “Teamwork makes the dream work,” …
I was the expectant team leader at Minot, the one designated to survive “a little longer than the others” if nuclear war came. My role was not glamorous. It was a reminder that even in medicine, some of us were expendable. Years later, I was nearly sent to the First Gulf War, and I watched colleagues deployed to Afghanistan, developmental pediatricians pressed into service far from the children they were …
In Japan’s far north, Hokkaido stretches across mountains, forests, and endless snow. For months each year, the landscape turns white, and travel slows to a crawl. This vast and beautiful region (known for dairy farms, fishing towns, and open space) is also one of the most sparsely populated parts of the country.
For people living here, health care access depends not only on medicine, but on geography, infrastructure, and weather. It’s …
It is remarkable that treatises, white papers, editorials, and articles on the cost of health care are consistent with ignoring the essence of care, and they are lacking in physician commentary. Insurance is not health care, and there can be no health care without doctors. Simply stated, in the end after all the intermediaries have claimed their pound of flesh for myriad services that most often provide little to no …
I live across the street from a funeral home. Each day as I see the cars begin to line up and the people in dark clothes gather to say goodbye, I can’t help but wonder about the stories inside. Who were they coming to honor? What kind of life had just ended? So, most mornings, before I check my email or the hospital census, I read the obituaries.
As a child, …
In medicine, we are trained to act decisively in moments of crisis. We respond to hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, and trauma with clarity and speed. Yet when the crisis is internal (when the dysfunction lies within our teams, our leadership structures, or ourselves) many of us hesitate. We tolerate misalignment because it is familiar. We fear change more than we fear staying stuck.
This fear is not benign. It erodes morale, fractures …
As a psychiatrist, I often find myself confronting not only the symptoms of mental illness but also the deep scars left by stigma. Even in 2025, despite advances in neuroscience and a growing cultural focus on mental health, stigma remains one of the greatest barriers to healing. It manifests in silence, shame, and misunderstanding, and it affects patients, families, and even those of us within the psychiatric profession. Addressing stigma …
There was a time when I thought burnout was easy to recognize, that it came with flashing red lights and emotional breakdowns. I imagined it as the dramatic kind of collapse you see in movies: a physician walking out mid-shift, tears in their eyes, leaving their stethoscope behind.
In those days, I didn’t really think about burnout. I believed burnout happened to other people, the ones who hadn’t mastered time management …
“If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character. That is the most significant thing about you.”
– Dale Carnegie, How to Make Friends and Influence People
We all want to feel seen, recognized, and appreciated. That’s human nature. But where do you get your feeling of importance? What aspects of yourself are essential to who you are and how …
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I wield my instrument with confidence and precision. It slices through the air as an extension of my dominant hand. My feet shift slightly; I anticipate needing to reposition my body for the next step. I execute the move flawlessly. No, I’m not in the midst of performing a medical procedure: I’m on the tennis court. My husband had been encouraging me to take up tennis for a while, but …
Something unsettling is happening in medicine, and many of us feel it even if we haven’t said it out loud: evidence-based medicine is slowly being eroded, not just by outsiders, but from within our own profession.
Patients today are searching more than ever before for quick fixes, and physicians are increasingly stepping into the marketplace to meet that demand. Hormone pellets. “Longevity protocols.” Peptides that sound scientific but have no real …
As a pain management specialist, my intent is not to promote unchecked opioid prescribing or overlook the serious risks these medications pose. Instead, I advocate for viewing the full picture in patient care. Physicians, trained in medicine and its side effects, must be empowered to use their knowledge and direct observations, including subtle cues like body language and patient interactions during brief visits, to make tailored decisions. Documentation in charts …
Anyone close to me knows orthopedics has never been my cup of tea. I rarely studied it properly; somehow, my enthusiasm always remained low. No offence to the subject, but maybe it started the day I saw my best friend’s forearm break. Fractures have always made me uncomfortable. During one of our postings, we were asked to do a case presentation. A patient was assigned to us, and it happened …
Have you ever wondered how a single online comment might shape your reputation as a physician? I have, especially after reading a review that sardonically suggested I had earned my medical degree from Amazon (the company, not the rainforest). The jab was clearly meant to sting. Although I regret the dissatisfaction behind it, it gave me pause. How much weight do we give these offhand remarks, and what do they …
Most midlife men don’t walk into our clinics asking for help. They walk in asking for labs.
They’ll tell us they’re “just tired,” “not as sharp,” or “feeling off.” They’ll blame work or age. They’ll ask for hormone testing or a quick fix. What they rarely say (and what most of us rarely ask about) is the deeper truth underneath the symptoms.
There is a silent crisis unfolding in midlife men, and …
My mother’s life was defined by silence. She was born in India. In a world where a woman’s worth was measured in duty: how well she cared for others, how quietly she endured. She was obedient. Her dreams were practical, her voice gentle. Never shared an opinion.
I used to think that by becoming a doctor (a woman with a career, a passport, a voice) I had escaped that silence for …
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