Being a physician is an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling profession. I’ve been a physician for over 20 years and I still find joy in my work because I’ve learned to adapt to the changes we are experiencing in the medical field. And, I’ve use the tips I’m sharing with you to operate the best medical practice and provide the best health care possible.
Know the “99” codes like the back of …
5 ways to succeed as a new provider, guaranteed
There have been scores of recent articles about Congresswoman-elect Kathy Hochul’s upset win in New York’s 26th Congressional District special election. They all seem to share a thread of incredulity, followed either by chortling or spin depending on the source. These stories also share the sense that her victory was truly an underdog performance destined to become legend.
According to The New York Times, “Two months ago, the Democrat … was …
Our growing ability to prolong life and our shrinking ability to pay for it
If someone asked me at this point in the year, which happens to be nearly the end of my first one, what I liked most about medical school, it would have to be the patient’s stories.
I could do without the hours of science classes and my utter lack of motivation to learn any subject that I am told is important. I could also do without the people who need …
The side effects of cancer treatment go beyond losing your hair
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. APSF is a patient advocate organization whose mission is to improve the safety of patients during anesthesia care by encouraging and conducting: safety research and education; patient safety programs and campaigns; and the …
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation improves patient safety
Does it really matter how many ribs Michelle Obama ate on her vacation? For too many conservatives, the answer seems to be yes, with pundits poking fun at the anti-obesity guru’s dinner choice. But conservatives need to give it a rest: many seem to prefer scoring easy points against the First Lady to arguing about the best way to attack the obesity epidemic — and some even claim that …
Why obesity should concern conservatives
As a medical student I have come to appreciate two core goals of health care:
1. Health: The delivery of medical knowledge, assessment or treatment to a patient
2. Care: The compassionate approach to any patient
In my medical training, I have also witnessed clinical medicine practiced across a spectrum of situations. Taking my time to reflect on these experiences, I am not certain we are meeting our goals. Too often …
Are we providing health care, or just delivering health?
Sooner or later, it happens to every patient advocate or navigator who works with patients on the medical aspects of their care (as opposed to other forms of advocacy, like billing or legal advocates).
One of “our” patients — someone whose hand we have held, who we have protected from problems in the hospital, who depended on our advocacy expertise as a way to make the …
It’s not an advocate’s job to save a patient’s life
I delivered a keynote presentation a few weeks ago entitled “Personalized Medicine: Tailoring Healthcare in the Information Age” to a group of parents who had taken their kids to the Bristol-Myers Squibb Science Horizons summer science camp.
Aside from the jolt the parents received from my presentation regarding anticipated changes in 21st century healthcare, especially involving the myriad ELSI issues that would confront medical practices as a …
In a meeting with senior management at Harvard Medical School, one of our leaders asked, “What is our cloud strategy?”
My answer to this is simple. The public cloud (defined as the rapid provisioning and de-provisioning of CPU cycles, software licenses, and storage) is good for many things, such as web hosting or non-critical applications that do not contain patient or confidential information.
At Harvard Medical …
Public and private cloud computing at a hospital
When we think of vaccines we need to divide the world into the industrialized countries, those with transitional economies and the developing countries.
In the developing world, the proportion of the population less than 15 is very high, e.g., Mali has about 50% of its population under age fifteen compared to about 15% in the industrialized countries. This suggests that the emphasis in the …
Vaccines in the developing world
I was paged by labor and delivery three times during the 10-minute drive from my house. I headed straight from the parking lot to the labor ward expecting a patient of mine to be close to delivery. I was wrong.
The chief resident and attending obstetrician were waiting. They looked tired and worried.
A woman had arrived on Friday with ruptured membranes. She was 21 weeks along in her pregnancy, and now …
I don’t like that you do abortions, but if you didn’t, I would probably be dead
The non-compliant patient who sues his physician for an adverse clinical outcome is a storied malpractice bogeyman. After failing to follow a screening regimen, show for appointments, undergo recommended tests, make health-related lifestyle changes, or take their medications, these patients (now plaintiffs) have the audacity to blame the doctors and nurses for not being adequately clear or assertive.
Are they real?
Yes and no. Not every “difficult” patient is a potential …
Do non-compliant patients really sue their doctors?
What if I were to tell you that Washington is trying to balance the budget by making cuts to a program that covers 70% of the nation’s nursing home costs and 43% of all births in California? Well they are.
The rancorous debate over how to balance the federal budget includes drastic cuts to Medicaid. And while this program may seem distant to people in power and the general public, …
Medicaid represents our nation’s moral commitment to help the poor
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I love being a family physician. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing.
I love the breadth of family medicine. I love being able to take care of just about every person that walks through the door. Even when another doctor is the right person to take care of a niche need, I love knowing that I was usually the person that …
Why I love being a family physician
We are living a new era where the progress for the civil rights of women is undeniable, yet Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg points out in her compelling TED presentation:
“We still live in a world where some women don’t have [civil rights]. But all that aside, we still have … a real problem … women are not making it to the top of any profession …
Women in medicine: Gender, mentors and role models
An excerpt from Alone and Invisible No More: How Grassroots Community Action and 21st Century Technologies Can Empower Elders to Stay in Their Homes and Lead Healthier, Happier Lives (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011).
by Allan S. Teel, MD
Whenever I engage in a detailed discussion about our core mission of helping elders remain in their own homes, invariably the conversation turns to liability. “Aren’t you …
The dignity of risk and elderly patients
Getting your infant, toddler, or even preschooler to sleep through the night is tricky at best.
If you are one of the lucky ones, you may have an “easy” sleeper. You know, the one that seems content after some rocking, singing, and nursing. Things just flow and voila, you actually have a baby that, “sleeps like a baby” so to speak.
However, for many of us, “sleep like a baby” is …
Let go of guilt while trying to get your baby to sleep
According to Wikipedia, up to the beginning of the 19th century there had been only 3 occupations that were considered to be professions, Divinity, Medicine and Law.
A profession is considered a trade or occupation that transforms itself through “the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit, discipline members, and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice.”
Professionals are …
The professional status of physicians is at risk
by J.E.B. Johnson, MD
Let me preface this comment by stating I am not an actuarial. I hated statistics and am no fan of insurance companies. That said I would like to know why patients and the US government think that health insurance companies should accept unlimited risk? My car insurance has limits, my homeowners insurance has limits, my malpractice insurance has limits. Why …
A private sector solution for wider, more affordable health coverage
Part-maverick, part-unconventional, part-smart business owner Sir Richard Branson has business lessons to share in spades. Since I recently read his third autobiographical book Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur, I wanted to pass on some of what I learned from the book.
Without knowing exactly why, I have long admired his acumen and chutzpah. His story has provided me insights into why I’ve been so drawn to his adventures in …
What Richard Branson can teach doctors
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