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Join medical student Leana Pande. We’ll explore the vital role health care practitioners play in addressing intimate partner violence (IPV). Discover how education, training, patient-centered care, and risk assessment tools can empower health care providers to make …
Domestic violence awareness in medicine [PODCAST]
In an impromptu listing of all the diseases his children had, I never would have guessed that the next word to come out of my attending’s mouth was “gay.” As an LGBTQ+ medical student with scars on my chest to prove it, this encounter only added to the collection of instances where I felt the weight of being underrepresented in medicine. Or am I?
Each year, the Association of American …
A call for LGBTQ+ inclusion in medicine’s definition of “underrepresented”
The universe can be a very confusing place.
Quite often, things will happen together or one-after-another that will cause even learned people to connect two events as causative when they are not. These misattributions are not just of academic concern. They can have real-world consequences.
In 1347, a plague began to sweep through Europe. At the time, no one knew what caused plagues, and the germ theory of disease was centuries away. …
Confusing correlation with causation: the most common error in science
I leaned over the bed’s railing, straining to hear the morphine-slurred words spilling out of his chapped lips. “Make them stop laughing,” he said, referring to the cohort of young nurses giggling around the code cart in the hallway. “I’m in here suffering, in pain, and I shouldn’t have to hear laughter. Tell them to stop. Tell their boss. It’s so unprofessional.” After spitting out the last spiteful words of …
A heartfelt plea: the power of emotions in health care
Often the key to solving a troublesome problem is approaching it from a different direction. As 19th-century mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi wisely noted (and as popularized by renowned investor Charlie Munger), “Invert, always invert.”
Therefore, when we consider ways to transform our current health care system in the U.S. to deliver more reliable, equitable, cost-effective value, we should explore the factors that perpetuate a continued unreliable, wasteful system that propagates …
How value-based care can address health inequities
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L. Joseph Parker, a research physician, sheds light on how AI has been employed to target physicians and reshape the landscape of health care, especially in the context of the opioid crisis. Discover the ethical and legal …
AI’s role in health care law enforcement [PODCAST]
My overall feeling is that independent practices cannot survive in isolation, nor can they single-handedly drive the transformation needed for value-based care, population health, or to ensure that the most vulnerable have the primary care access they need. We do require financial partners and investment. However, it’s crucial to ensure that we align with the right partners who share a vision that will continuously improve pediatrics for the long term.
During …
Navigating the growing interest of private equity in pediatrics
First, a disclaimer. I do not know Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and I am not involved in his medical care. As an academic infectious disease physician, I am ignorant of the internecine hierarchy of the Defense Department. However, I listen to the news and thus am aware of his recent prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. On National Public Radio, reporters were discussing why the secretary of defense did not …
Prostate cancer privacy vs. public right to know: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s dilemma
I was recently reminded that you always learn something from your patients, no matter how long your medical profession is. I was reminded of this when I had the opportunity to treat a young person in transition. I reviewed the chart before walking into the exam room. Among other things, it listed the patient’s chief complaint (i.e., in this case, lower back pain), age of nineteen, female sex, and a …
Lessons from treating a transgender patient
Journaling was never my thing. I would buy a pretty journal with great intentions of writing in it regularly. I would write in it daily for a week or two, then forget for a few days, and then forget about it altogether. When I started writing to process some emotions about my mother and my relationship with her, my journal writing was meant to be a brief and cathartic exercise. …
From reluctant journaling to healing words: How writing unveiled my life’s journey
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Join Adam Mariano, a health care executive. We’ll delve into the world of Big Data and tokenization in health care, exploring how these technologies are revolutionizing patient insights, data security, and health care outcomes. Learn about the …
Data tokenization in health care [PODCAST]
Dr. Gray is a young, bright emergency medicine physician who recently relocated to Austin, Texas, to start his first job as an attending. Nervous and excited, Dr. Gray is eager to explore the lively city of Austin and start practicing emergency medicine on his own. After a few months in the city, he noticed higher rates of obesity, homelessness, and uncontrolled diabetes among his patients compared to his prior practice …
An excerpt from Medicine on Fire: A Narrative Travelogue.
I regret not keeping a diary or journal to write about patient encounters and interactions with peers, residents and attendings, not to mention the sundry characters connected to the academic health center where I trained and practiced. Had I done that, I would have had a lot more material to write about, and my …
My journey of missed journaling opportunities in the world of medicine
As physicians, our primary goal is to provide the best possible care to our patients. However, even with the best intentions, medical gaslighting can occur, leading to patient distress and potentially harmful outcomes. Medical gaslighting is not often intentional. It can happen when physicians, under time constraints, facing diagnostic challenges, or experiencing burnout, inadvertently invalidate a patient’s symptoms or concerns.
Just a few years ago, I found myself on the other …
Enhancing patient care: strategies for physicians to prevent medical gaslighting
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine by expanding our knowledge and reducing our workload. However, physicians should tread carefully and take heed of the example set by other industries. For example, AI was at the core of the negotiations in the recent 2023 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. “AI was a dealbreaker,” said Fran Drescher, a union leader of the …
What doctors can learn from actors about artificial intelligence
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In this episode, retired cardiologist Sarah Samaan delves into the world of meditation. We discuss the perception of meditation in health care, its benefits for physicians, and the scientific research supporting its effectiveness. Join us as we …
Meditation: a prescription for physician well-being [PODCAST]
Following in his father’s footsteps, my son is a third-year medical student and by the time he completes his training, cell-cultivated chicken meat may be replacing meat from slaughtered birds. My home state of Alabama is one of the top chicken-producing states, but in the future, poultry production may take place in stainless steel tanks, rather than chicken coops.
Federal regulators Read more…
Chicken farming undergoes a radical shift: the rise of cell-cultivated meat
As a dedicated professional, your work is incredibly challenging as you strive to maintain your primary focus on providing excellent patient care. Your inherent business powers that generate revenue make you a highly valued asset in the health care marketplace. This is why many large corporations have offered financial incentives for you to join their employed workforce. As a result, you can expect a predictably substantial paycheck deposited regularly into …
Tax tips for employed doctors: the allure and hazards of safe harbors
Medical aid in dying (MAID) is poised to be one of the hottest political health care issues of 2024. As in 2023, more than a dozen states will hold both impassioned hearings in legislative chambers and equally fervent debates in the community. Already, nearly twenty states have introduced bills to authorize MAID this year. They seek to join the eleven states that already authorize MAID for 73 million Americans (California, …
Medical aid in dying: time for evidence-based legislation
In 2020, the ICPerMed (International Consortium for Personalized Medicine) published a ten-year vision for how personalized medicine, a new form of medicine, has the potential to rebuild an equitable and accessible health care system by 2030.
Precision or personalized medicines are drugs developed with genomic sequencing technologies, targeting the critical genes in specific types of cancer or genetic diseases. Thus, PMs are highly effective in treating their …
Why new cancer treatments cannot save us
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