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Were the physicians on Jimmy Kimmel professional?

Physician

March 18, 2015

You’ve likely seen the Jimmy Kimmel “public service announcement” on vaccines. Over 3 1/2 million people have viewed it on Youtube so if you’re not yet one of them you’ll likely add to the tally now. The first 3 minutes of the monologue are spot-on, and they’re also very funny. Jimmy takes a stand against the “anti-vaxxers.” He mentions that some parents are more scared of “gluten than small pox” …

To your own Vulcan self: Be true

Steve Schlozman, MD

Physician

March 18, 2015

“What would Spock think about the ‘husky’ designation?” That’s what I was pondering. I was wondering how the master of logic would justify and make sense of the clearly derogatory way I was feeling about myself.

“Fascinating,” I imagined him saying, and he would raise that patented eyebrow.

Then I looked in the mirror, furrowed my brow, took note of the barely present peach fuzz growing under my nose, and with all …

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To your own Vulcan self: Be true

More humanity, less physician burnout

Starla Fitch, MD

Physician

March 18, 2015

Physician burnout — and burnout in general — is at an all-time high. From this Wall Street Journal article by Dr. Sandeep Jauhar to a recent TEDx talk by Dr. Romila Mushtaq, the angst is palpable.

Sadly, as noted in this piece in the New York Times, the suicide rates of physicians and doctors-in-training increase every year.

The insurance companies’ complications, government involvement, and economic downturn have all added fuel to this fire of discontent. …

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More humanity, less physician burnout

A message to those taking care of my medically-complex child

Anonymous

Patient

March 18, 2015

To the staff overseeing my medically-complex child,

My child has been in this world much longer than you expected; thus I’ve been in this relationship with you much longer than I expected. If I could break up with you and find someone new, believe me I would (I’m sure so would you some days). But that isn’t possible; we’re in a dysfunctional relationship. If we recognize this together and just come to an …

5 things to know about what’s new in hemophilia

Ellis Neufeld, MD, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

March 17, 2015

From new longer-acting drugs to promising gene therapy trials, much is changing in the treatment of hemophilia, the inherited bleeding disorder in which the blood does not clot. I will mark Hemophilia Awareness Month by discussing research and treatment progress, as well as remaining challenges.

1. Many more treatment products are being introduced, including some that last longer. In people with hemophilia, a “factor” — or blood …

Eulogy for the doctor

Michael Brant-Zawadzki, MD

Physician

March 17, 2015

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No physician, however conscientious or careful, can tell what day or hour he may not be the object of some undeserved attack, malicious accusation, blackmail or suit for damages … “
– Assaults Upon Medical Men. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1892

It’s happened again: A well-liked doctor is killed by his patient. Last year’s horrific death of a physician in our community, a …

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Eulogy for the doctor

Want your ER physician to leave happy? Do these things.

Thomas Paine, MD

Physician

March 17, 2015

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I have been doing emergency medicine for almost ten years — thirteen if residency counts, and I sure think it does. I face the same issues that cause my work colleagues, physicians and nurses alike, to burnout. I struggle with burnout myself, but I keep coming back. Many days (and nights), I ask myself why I continue to do what I …

The health care safety net: Put patients first

Peter Long, PhD

Health Policy

March 17, 2015

For many of the millions of low-income families seeking quality health care in the safety net, the quest can be bewildering. They may walk into a drab, disorganized and unwelcoming clinic, with the staff, signage, and endless medical forms all using unfamiliar language, with unexplained, lengthy waiting times, and with providers burying them in information they can’t understand. On a second visit, they may feel even worse when they end …

3 myths and 3 truths about hospice

Monica Williams-Murphy, MD

Physician

March 17, 2015

As I travel around speaking about preparing for peace at the end of life, I have found that there are three pervasive myths about hospice that might cause you to inadvertently rob yourself or your family of a peace-filled end-of-life experience.

So, I am taking on the job of myth-buster to clear the air. Here goes:

Myth #1: Hospice is a place. While hospice can be a place, it is primarily a service. …

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3 myths and 3 truths about hospice

Hospitals fight to charge you more

Tanya Feke, MD

Health Policy

March 17, 2015

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has put its foot down, this time on the side of patients. Many hospitals charge you more for the same outpatient tests you get in your doctor’s office. Sixty-six different services are being targeted by CMS to leverage the playing field.

Are the tests really all that different?

We are not talking about inpatient tests that happen when you are sick enough to be …

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Hospitals fight to charge you more

A phrase as a metaphor for dying itself

Ellen Rand

Patient

March 16, 2015

In 2010, I became a hospice volunteer.

My mother had died of a brain tumor five years earlier at age eighty-seven. I saw being a hospice volunteer as a way to express my gratitude for my mother’s compassionate hospice care and to help other caregivers to weather a loved one’s passing. And, as a former reporter and writer, I thought I could help people to write their life stories, if they …

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A phrase as a metaphor for dying itself

Surprise! When it comes to a vaginal hysterectomy, this insurance company gets it right.

Jennifer Gunter, MD

Conditions and Diseases

March 16, 2015

The preferred route for a hysterectomy is vaginal. This means the entire surgery is done through the vagina with no incisions in the abdomen of any kind. The joke among surgeons is that it is a bit like taking a car apart through the muffler. While doing surgery entirely through the vagina may sound highly complex, it’s really just like any surgery. A vaginal hysterectomy done correctly it is an …

Patient expectations lead to unhealthy relationships with doctors

Shirie Leng, MD

Physician

March 16, 2015

I was talking to a colleague of mine yesterday. (At least I flatter myself that I am a colleague. He has a writing job at a prestigious magazine while I, well, don’t.) We were talking about the doctor-patient relationship, as is our wont, and he said something that stood out to me as the quintessential statement of patients’ expectations about doctors.

It …

The gun violence epidemic is a traumatic injury epidemic

Kohar Jones, MD

Physician

March 16, 2015

“What brings you in today?” I asked my new patient, a healthy appearing clean cut 35-year-old married man with kids.

“Check me out, doc.” (STD check? chronic disease screen?) “My brother was just diagnosed with diabetes; I want to make sure I’m OK.” (OK, easy — sugar and cholesterol check)

No prior medical problems for him.

Prior surgeries? At this question, he paused.

“I was shot in the leg last summer leaving work,” he said. “I lost …

We are overprescribing statin medications for high cholesterol. Here’s why.

Richard Young, MD

Medications

March 16, 2015

The American Heart Association (AHA) recently proposed new guidelines for all doctors to screen and treat for high cholesterol. For doctors and patients to follow, this would result in a large increase in the number of Americans taking statins.

One of the things I like about the new proposal is that there is no more chasing a number. This was frustrating for doctors and patients to keep having lab draws and medication …

The paradox of physician communication

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

March 16, 2015

Physicians have so many ways to communicate. Yet why are they so far apart?

Communication Breakdown, It’s always the same, I’m having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!
– Communication Breakdown, Led Zeppelin

Oh why can’t we talk again? Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone!
– Hanging on the Telephone, Blondie

I honestly don’t know how they did it, how doctors practiced and communicated effectively in the days before our modern technology, with computers, …

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The paradox of physician communication

Will cuts to Medicare Advantage reduce quality?

Tanya Feke, MD

Health Policy

March 15, 2015

The feds are at it again. Medicare is in the cross hairs with an anticipated 0.9 percent cut to Medicare Advantage plan payments in 2016. The final decision is to be made on April 6 of this year.

Medicare Advantage plans are an alternative to traditional Medicare. Traditional Medicare consists of Part A (hospital) and Part B (medical) coverage. Medicare Advantage plans (Part C) can be chosen in place of the …

Using algorithms to beat down our physician colleagues

Luis Collar, MD

Physician

March 15, 2015

An excerpt from A Quiet Death.

Even as I lay perfectly still in the near-complete silence of my car, I could hear Dr. Tierney’s adenoidal voice in my mind. He always seized every opportunity to assure us that his diagnostic or therapeutic approach to patients was firmly supported by the literature. That, at least in the sense he intended it, was pure bullshit.

The medical literature had grown exponentially …

Data-based medicine: The end of evidence-based medicine?

Wenjay Sung, DPM

Health Technology

March 15, 2015

As all kinds of information are being collected about every aspect of our lives, the data generated at this exorbitant rate can lead to advancements in research and health care. That is the idea behind big data” and it’s disruptive benefits for the health care industry. The term encompasses a searchable vast data collection for relative information in order to quickly identify trends. Like all other disruptive innovations, the focus …

Targeting physician salaries: I speak for the ten-percenters

Rocky Bilhartz, MD

Health Policy

March 14, 2015

I’m a cardiologist. But if you believe the news, you will assume my entire medical specialty is shady and full of morally suspect physicians. Let me tell you why.

Recently, two articles surfaced in the lay press, one published by the New York Times and the other by U.S. News & World Report. Like the majority …