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Medical malpractice is a lot like running a marathon

Policy

October 26, 2022

A medical malpractice process is a lot like running a marathon.

The analogy makes it easy to understand why physicians are emotionally unready to go through years of litigation and often find themselves struggling.

To successfully make it through the grueling 26.2 miles, a runner has to be well-prepared.

It’s common for runners to join a running group. Sometimes, engage a coach who can help to train smart.

Runners will spend months building up …

Giving medical advice with moral values is deeply personal and takes courage

Kevin Haselhorst, MD

Physician

October 26, 2022

Imagine delivering testimony to practicing emergency medicine for 30 years on the TEDx stage and my “Real Serious Illness Conversations with Parents” being condemned with this NOTE FROM TED: Please do not look to this talk as a substitute for health advice. This talk only reflects the speaker’s personal views and beliefs. It’s as if to say, “Beware of the doc”… who lets individuals decide how they’ll die …

Coronavirus and the duty to treat

David Shafran, MD

Physician

October 25, 2022

For the first time since graduation from medical school, stirred by the courage of my colleagues in the ICUs and emergency rooms during the COVID pandemic, I looked back at the Hippocratic oath to reassess its charge to physicians. My wife and I, both doctors, studied and trained for a long time, and we considered the years spent and the effort put forth to be a calculated sacrifice. But amidst …

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Coronavirus and the duty to treat

Let’s meet in child’s pose and welcome the day

Steven Meas

Education

October 25, 2022

Anyone who has ever practiced yoga knows what that means. Child’s pose. Kneeling with toes untucked. Upper body hinged over the hips with arms outstretched and forehead resting against the mat. Breathing. In and out. In. And. Out. We are told it’s a recovery position, a safe place.

Whenever we are feeling overwhelmed with another position, or even if the position is not just clicking, we can find rest in something …

Amazon, CVS, and Walmart are playing health care’s long game

Robert Pearl, MD

Policy

October 25, 2022

In recent months, three of the nation’s largest retailers have stirred up a frenzy on Wall Street with a string of high-profile health care deals.

Amazon bought primary-care company One Medical in early August for $3.9 billion. That was a month before CVS spent $8 billion to acquire Signify Health and its network of 10,000 clinicians who make home visits (both virtually and IRL). A day later, Walmart inked a 10-year …

It’s not brain surgery: People with Parkinson’s need better care in the hospital

Rebecca Miller, PhD

Conditions

October 24, 2022

One year ago, I had brain surgery. The surgery was a success, and the hospital stay almost killed me.

I am one in a million; one of the 1 million people in the U.S. diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a degenerative neurological disorder that currently has no cure. It is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world, with the prevalence Read more…

It’s not brain surgery: People with Parkinson’s need better care in the hospital

Overcoming the trauma of a fatherless childhood

Morarji Peesay, MD

Physician

October 24, 2022

An excerpt from Absent-Father Syndrome: Overcoming the Trauma of a Fatherless Childhood.

“I’ve sat face to face in front of many adults who were crying their eyes out,” says Rachel Norman, founder of A Mother Far from Home. “They needed healing tools and positive coping mechanisms. They had low self-worth, nonexistent …

On my hard days, my patients are my heroes

Saba Fatima, MD

Physician

October 24, 2022

I was standing outside the patient room, feeling slightly restless that day. A few days ago, I had just received some news from my doctor that I was not expecting. My mind sifted through the various possibilities and directions this could take me. When will I get to see my doctor to discuss this? What does this mean? As my brain was walking through the various unknowns, my physical body …

Adverse childhood experiences: Can government policy reduce trauma?

Ariane Marie-Mitchell, MD, PhD, MPH

Conditions

October 23, 2022

One of the most radical implications of the literature on early childhood trauma is that abuse needs to be eliminated from all of our relationships: our families, teachers, colleagues, and government. When government leaders create a new policy, they can proceed in a way that disempowers constituents, or they can proceed in a way that fosters dialogue and shared decision-making. Ironically, the development and implementation of California’s policy …

Institutionalized racism in psychiatry: a doctor’s experience

Dr. Jamie Ioane

Physician

October 23, 2022

I was sitting in front of a panel of six people for my psychiatry training interview in Wellington, New Zealand. Two community members, two psychiatry consultants, and a senior psychiatry registrar, all of which were of Caucasian ethnicity.

I can recall talking about cultural differences in my upbringing and how that has helped me to connect to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Samoan culture is adherently based …

Making it work when you’re married to a medical student

Hailey Tharani

Education

October 23, 2022

My husband’s medical school offered a “key supporters” session during his first-year orientation week. Each student’s family or significant other was invited to attend a two-hour session to learn the schedule of a student doctor and for a panel discussion from current students and their key supporters.

Most people walking out of the room afterward were really nervous. It sounded like students were studying 15 hours a day with no more …

Physicians with mental illness shouldn’t hide

Alison Baum, MD

Physician

October 22, 2022

Doctors with mental illness don’t need more suicide awareness — we’re aware. And we don’t need confidential treatment opportunities. What we need is assurance from all invested parties — our employers, credentialing bodies, and licensing officials — that it will be OK if we need help, we can get what we need, and that everything for the job can be sorted out once we’re well. Because it turns out, in …

The national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health offers hope

Janice Phillips, PhD, RN

Policy

October 22, 2022

The announcement of the Biden-Harris Administration’s national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health is a critical step toward building a healthier nation. For the first time in half a century, the administration announced more than $8 million in private and public sector commitments to help end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030. The focus on food security, nutrition, and health is encouraging, as public health champions have …

Mental health is a slippery slope when it comes to physicians’ well-being

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

October 22, 2022

I applaud the efforts of several states that have enacted legislation to make it easier for physicians to get mental health treatment without incurring the wrath of physician health programs (PHPs). PHPs, while well-intended, are notoriously disruptive to the lives and careers of physicians struggling with depression, substance use disorders, and other mental health conditions. PHPs have a reputation for implementing unreasonable requirements and being coercive, sometimes worsening …

Why physicians never reach their career potentials

Curtis G. Graham, MD

Physician

October 21, 2022

Talk to physicians in private medical practice today, and you will discover that they will affirm that their medical practice is financially satisfactory, stable, and doing well financially.

Private practicing physicians know that they have no measurable standard to use to verify what they just told you except for their profit and loss statements from their CPA. And even if they believed they could be in a much better position financially, …

13 tips for depressed doctors who need confidential mental health care

Pamela Wible, MD

Physician

October 21, 2022

I just got this email from a physician: “Hi, Pamela. I wonder if I could curb you on seeking mental health services as a physician. I am not suicidal or impaired but considering a consultation with a psychiatrist for medication. Any chance you would be able to chat with me for a short bit to discuss tips for seeking consultation while avoiding stigma and labeling?”

Sadly, most medical professionals fear seeking …

Giving language to empathy: lessons from palliative care

Varsha Venkatakrishna

Conditions

October 21, 2022

The value of empathy in medicine is seldom debated. Just as the art of medicine is taught as the balance of knowledge and application, so has empathy been recognized as both a value to be fostered and a skill to be learned. Medical curricula have reflected this, and while didactics are increasingly filled with various conversational frameworks and behaviors that convey empathy, rarely do they include specific language to convey …

How prototyping your life can save medicine

Melissa Welker, MD, MPH

Physician

October 20, 2022

There is something to the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty that I just love. Every time I hear the music, I feel the sky of possibility opening as a melancholy feeling simultaneously hits. And today, while finishing my ACLS recertification, I realized another reason why: Walter Mitty finally starts designing his way forward. And you can too.

While sitting in between cases, one of my partners asked me why …

A physician celebrates her growth

Wendy Schofer, MD

Physician

October 20, 2022

As a pediatrician, you’d think that I’d be a pro at celebrating growth. After all, I celebrate the growth of children in the office as they meet their developmental milestones and grow physically. I celebrate their academic and social growth.

What I hadn’t celebrated: my own growth. I thought for years that I was beyond that. Even my own professional growth had become tedious: Check the boxes on CME …

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A physician celebrates her growth

We need to talk about the bullying in health care

Aldebra Schroll, MD

Physician

October 20, 2022

As we continue our third year of the pandemic, there have been reports of hostile treatment directed at public health officials and medical personnel. This is escalating a crisis of burnout among health professionals, but there is an insidious, chronic hostility that lurks within hospitals between those who are supposed to be on the same team.

Bullying within health care has been a longstanding challenge. It is pervasive enough that the …